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14024 " 14357 '

September 1984

HIGH-TECH MIMICRY

Ten terminal-emulation
packages for the IBM PC

— OMNINET FROM
CORVUS: GRAND OLD
MAN OF NETWORKS

TWO PRINTERS FROM IBM
COLOR GRAPHICS
AND PC COMPACT !r

ADVANCED MACRO TECHNIQUES
ON THE IBM PC

AN APL TUTORIAL

FROM ANALOG TO DIGITAL
ON THE PC WITH DASCON-1

When it comes to computer

communications there’s only
one name to remember,

Quadrann.

Now Quadram Makes Communications

as easy as 1,2,3.

When it comes to enhancement products
for IBM® PC’s and other personal computers,
no one can beat Quadram. In fact, if you use
spreadsheets or large databases, you’re
probably using a Quadram product already

Now Quadram applies their expertise to
communication devices. Not just modems,
but a full range of other products, too. So
that you can do anything from networking
many PC’s together to giving your PC full
3278 terminal emulation in an IBM
mainframe environment.

Only Quadram gives you such a selection-
complete with options and upgrade capability.
So now it’s easier for you to design the
perfect system for your needs. All you need
to do is remember one name—Quadram.

1. Quadmodem™

From your home or office,
reach out and touch
something.

Just because your computer is all alone,
that doesn’t mean it has to be lonely. Not
when you’ve got Quadmodem.

Quadmodem is a complete intelligent
modem package, including an integral or
standalone modem with supporting
documentation. Each modem comes with
QuadTalk—a powerful communications
software package plus an introductory
offer from The Source^*^

Just pick the model that’s right for you and
your computer.

The Integral Unit drops into an IBM PC, XT,
PCjr or Apple lie.

The Stand Alone is an inteiligent modem
that connects to your system through an
RS-232 port.

Both have enhanced diagnostic capability to
troubleshoot not only your ^stem, but the

system at the other end of the phone line.
And both have call progress monitoring to
automatically determine and compensate
for different types of phone systems and
transmission status (human voice, busy
signal, data or dial tones). Of course, both
plug directly from your computer into your
phone jack.

Get the modems with the name for quality.
Quadmodem™ Fully compatible with Bell
103/212A dial-up modems and the most
popular modem brands.

2.Quad3278™

Let an IBM PC communicate

To integrate your PC into a mainframe
environment, look to Quadram first.

Because now you can have all the features
of the IBM PC (mass storage and peripherals)
plus the incredible power of a mainframe
right at your desk. All it takes is Quadram’s
3278 emulation package which includes
hardware, software, even cabling.

To make your IBM PC emulate the 3278
Display VVbrk Station, get the Quad3278!^
Once you’re on-line the IBM mainframe
sees you as just another 3278 terminal.
Little does it know that you’re actually a
high-performance, intelligent work station,
with all the functions of the Personal
Computer. With mainframe support you
can download data, process it on your PC,
even store it on your own disk for later
reference.

Make the connection from micro to main¬
frame. And back it up with Quadram quality.
It’s the logical step for the future.

3. Quadnet ™

Tlirns your IBM PC’s into
a Local Area Network.

Local Area Networking (LAN) is one of the
most interesting md useful ideas to come

down the pike. Basically, it allows you to
inter-link a group of computers together so
they can share information and peripherals
with each other.

And now with Quadnet, you don’t have to
compromise your system to fit our system.
Instead, you can easily link as few as two, or
as many as 255 IBM PC’s together in a hard¬
wired network. And you can configure
them almost any way you want. They can
work independently of each other or share
resources and peripherals.

The possibilities are endless. But the
important thing to remember is that
Quadnet gives you a choice with four
different Network Systems. Choose the one
that meets your price and performance
needs.

Quadnet grows as you grow. Yet the user
commands stay the same, thanks to the
upward compatibility of the Quadnet
operating software.

Whichever version you hook on to, you get
a complete package (hardware, software,
and documentation). And most importantly,
you get Quadram’s reputation for quality.

QUADRAM QUALITY

At Quadram, we don’t
make personal computers.
We just make them
better. So insist on the
Quadram name. It’s your
assurance that you’re
buying from one of
the most established
and involved
companies in the microcomputer field. Ask
your dealer about us.

IBM- PC. XT. PCjr, are registered trademarks
of International Business Machines Corporation.

'The Source is a registered trademark of
Source Telecomputing Corporation.

APPLE lle^ is a registered trademark
of Apple Computers. Inc.

QUADRAM

' ^ An Intelligent Systems Company

4355 International Blvd./Norcross, Ga. 30093
(404) 923-6666/TWX 810-766-4915 (QUADRAM NCRS)

CIRCLE NO. 191 ON READER SERVICE CARD

INTERNATIONAL OFFICES

Interquadram Ltd. 442 Bath Road. Slough. England SL16BB
Tel 6286-63865 Tlx 847155 Auriema G Interquadram GmbH
Fasanenweg 7 6092 Kelsterbach. West Germany Tel 6107-3089
Tlx 417770 Seva G Interquadram s.a.r.l. 4i. Rue Ybry, 92522 Neuilly
Tel 758-1240 Tlx 630842 Iso Bur Chevco Computing 6581 Kitimat
Road. Mississauga. Ontario. Canada L5N-2X5 Tel 416-821-7600

Has Your IBM PC
been suffering from lack
of communication?

The Information Interface

What’s s(q>porting
YOttflBMFC?

The First Information Management
System That Takes Your P.C.
Seriously.

Combines, in a single integrated
system, all of the historically separate
functions of database manager, report
generator, query language, forms
facility, database definition, data
dictionary, and programming
language.

1785 Woodward Drive
Ottawa, Onta rio K2C OR 1
(613)727-1397

The first commercially available
Information Management System
which uses the Entity Relationship
Model of Data. It captures not only
data, but also the way in which it is
structured. Generates information
applications as much as 20 times
faster than conventional methods.

INFORMATION INC.

CIRCLE NO. 148 ON READER SERVICE CARD

FOR USE ON IBM PC® & XT®,
HYPERION®, COLUMBIA®,
EAGLE®, COMPAQ®, CORONA®
AND RAINBOW®.

Taligrass

TaiK-HAfdFWc
2e ' 20 Mb

In today's hard disk jungle, Tallgrass clears
a path by offering high performance, integrated
mass storage solutions for the IBM® PC/XT, the
T.I. Professional and related computers.

TALLGRASS INNOVATIVE FEATURES

MASS STORAGE SYSTEMS with formatted
HardFile^'^ capacities of 6, 12, 20, 35 and 70 Mb,
all with built-in tape backup.

CONVENIENT INTEGRAL TAPE BACKUP
SYSTEM allows rapid tape "image" streaming,
or incremental file-by-file backup and restore on
ANSI standard inexpensive data cartridges,
instead of the usual floppies, video cassettes, or
low-capacity removable Winchester devices.
NETWORK READY and fully compatible with
networks such as PCnet®and EtherShareT'^
HIGH RELIABILITY with dual directory and
read-after-write verify options. A dedicated
landing zone, where the read/write heads reside
when the disk is idle, provides data protection
during powerdowns and transportation.

Follow the Tallgrass path to your local computer
dealer and watch your personal computer transform
into a powerful data processing system.

Available from COMPUTERLAND® Entre®
Computer Centers, MicroAge® Computer Stores
and other participating computer dealers.

New!

IBM-XT Cartridge
Tape Backup

World Headquarters: Tallgrass Technologies Corp. / 11100 W. 82nd St.

Overland Park, KS 66214/913/492-6002/Telex; 215406 TBYT UR

Canadian Headquarters: Tallgrass Technologies (Canada), 1775 Meyerside Drive
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L4V 1H2/ 416/ 673-3244

Eurojjean Distributor: CPS Computer Group, LTD
Birmingham, England B276BH/{021) 7073866

Australian Headquarters: Tallgrass Technolgies (Australia)/Five Dock Plaza,

Suite 12/50 Great North Road/Five Dock/Sydney, N.S.W. 2046/(02) 712-2010

CIRCLE NO. 234 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Tallgrass
Technologies

Corporation

IBM® is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. PCnet® is a trademark of Orchid Technology EtherShareis a registered trademark of 3Com Corp.

FOR IBM PERSONAL C OJVl PUTER USER

nn'

Volume 2, Number 3
September 1984

OURNAL

Articles

POOR RICHARD’S CONVERTER: FROM A TO D

WILLIAM H. MURRAY / DASC0N-1 demonstrates its usefulness as an A/D converter.

HIGH-TECH MIMICRY

AUGIE HANSEN / Ten terminal emulation systems are tested, and all score well.

OMNIUM-GATHERUM

SUSAN GLINERT-COLE and )ULIE ANDERSON / Omninet does a

respectable job handling the microcomputer networking needs of a small business.

COMPARING GREAT THINGS WITH SMALL

ARTHUR A. GLECKLER / IBM invades both ends of the printer market spectrum.

THE DOS COMMAND IBM FORGOT

DOUGLAS RITARI / EPSON.COM simplifies the use of a variety of printer options.

OKI DOKEY: FROM PC TO OKIDATA 84

lEFF GARBERS / The Okidata 84p can be made to print the PCs line-drawing characters.

STRINGS

CHRISTOPHER MORGAN / The third excerpt from Bluebook of Assembly Routines.

111

LIFE IS SIMPLE WITH APL

PARDNER WYNN / APL puts in a winning performance at the game of Life.

129

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

GREGG L. PETTIT / A set of macros improves programming efficiency.

151

ASSEMBLERS WITHOUT ULCERS

ERIC S. RAYMOND / ASM-86 turns into a structured programming language.

173

Departments

Tech Notebook

Products

Directions 5

23: Behind BASIC's Back 198

Tech Book 199

Letters 14

Tech Mart 203

Newsline 24

Product Index 205

Legal Brief 188

Tech Releases 192

Calendar 208

Advertisers’ Index 207

September i984

TAURUS
TAKE CONTROL
TEAM

Data acquisition and process control
systems for your personal computer

No matter what your applica¬
tion in computer automation,
Taurus Computer Products Inc.
has a team of products with the
power and performance to let
you take control. Easy and afford¬
able solutions that can read data
from factory, field or lab; make
decisions based on user-supplied
parameters and output the
instructions and controls back to
the real world.

Take TAURUS LAB, the research
tool that can plug into any personal
computer with command func¬
tions like simple read and write,
high speed block reads, pulse
counting and direct thermocou¬
ple input. And there’s TAURUS
ONE for industrial process con¬
trol applications. That’s where
rugged, reliable performance
matched with cost effectiveness
and expansion capabilities pay
their way.

And meet the newest member of
our team - TAURUS BOARD -
a single, plug-in system that can
easily harness the power of
your IBM PC or XT. It can handle
16 analog inputs and 2 analog
outputs with 12-bit resolution plus
16 digital I/O signals and 4
event counters. What’s more, it
comes complete with a signal
termination panel, interconnecting
ribbon cables, software that’s
compatible with all our products.

Get all the details, options and
prices on the Taurus team of
data acquisition and process con¬
trol products for IBM and other
personal computers. Taurus backs
all systems with comprehensive
customer support and warranty
program. Give us a call today
and let’s discuss your specific
applications. Automation and
control were never this easy, this
affordable.

TAURUS LAB, TAURUS ONE and TAURUS BOARD are
trademarks of Taurus Computer Products Inc.

IBM is a registered trademark of International Business
Machines Corporation.

17UJRUS

COMPUTER

PRODUCTS

INC

340 Commercial St
Manchester
NH 03101
United States
(603) 623-7505

1755 Woodward Dr
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K2C 0P9
(613) 226-5361
Telex 053-3577

rOURNAL

I VOL. 1 , NO. 3

Publisher: Jeff Weiner

Editorial

Editor: Will Fastie

Managing Editor: MARJORY Spraycar

Technical Editors: JULIE ANDERSON,

Susan Glinert-Cole
Senior Copy Editor: Susan Holly
Copy Editor: Barbara Tilly
Research Assistant: ARTHUR A. Gleckler
Contributing Editors. Ray Duncan, Richard
Foard, Augie Hansen, Thomas V. Hoffmann,
Sol Libes, William H. Murray, Max Stul
Oppenheimer

Editorial Secretary. Diana L. Carey
Editorial Assistant. CAROLE AUTENZIO

Art & Production

Art Director. Nancy Lepow
Assistant Art Director. Jane Frey
Art Assistant: Sandra Ray

Advertising Sales

Advertising Director. Newt Barrett
Advertising Coordinator. Sheryl Panzer
District Managers. RITA Burke, Ian Smith- East
Coast; Caroline Anderson -Midwest; Ted Bahr,
Harriet Rogers- West Coast
Account Sales Manager. PAULINE SCHERER
Account Representatives. STEVE CANNON—East
Coast; JOHN Grogan -Midwest; Bill Bush,
Arlene Steadman -West Coast

Circulation

Subscription Director. Chet Klimuszko, Direct
Mail Manager. ERIC A. BERNHARD, Renewal
and Billing Manager. Shane Boel

Consumer Computers &. Electronics
Magazine Division

President. Larry Sporn
Vice President, Marketing. J. ScOTT BRIGGS
Vice President, Circulation. Carole Mandel
Vice President, General Manager. ElLEEN G.
Markowitz

Vice President, Licensing and Special Projects. Jerry
Schneider

Vice President, Creative Services. Herbert Stern
Creative Director. Peter J. Blank
Editorial Director. JONATHAN D. Lazarus
Marketing Manager. Ronni Sonnenberg

Ziff-Davis Publishing

President, Richard P. FriesE; President, Consumer Magazine
Division, Albert S. TrainA; Executive Vice President, Market¬
ing and Circulation, PAUL H. ChooK; Senior Vice President,
Phillip T. HeffernaN; Senior Vice President, Sidney HoltZ;
Senior Vice President, Edward D. MuhlfelD; Senior Vice Pres¬
ident, Philip SinE; Vice President, Baird DaviS; Vice President,
George Morrissey, Vice President, Rory ParisI; Vice President,
William L. Phillips,- Treasurer, Selwyn TaubmaN; Secretary,
Bertram A. Abrams

PC Tech Journal (ISSN 0738-0194) is published 12 times a year,
$29.97 for one year, $52.97 for two years, $69.97 for three years.
Additional postage $12 for Canada &. Foreign by Ziff-Davis
Publishing Company, One Park Avenue, New York, N.Y.
10016. Application for Second-Class Postage Rates pending at
New York, NY 10001. POSTMASTER. Send address changes or
subscription inquiries to PC Tech Journal, P.O. Box 2968,
Boulder, CO 80321.

Business Offices: Advertising, One Park Avenue, New
York, NY 10016. 212-725-7947. Subscription inquiries to PC
TECH JOURNAL. P.O. Box 2968, Boulder, CO 80321.
Subscription service. 212-725-3628. Back issues, send $7.00/copy
to PC TECH JOURNAL. Box CN 1914, Morristown, NJ 07960.

Editorial Office: PC TECH JOURNAL. The World Trade
Center, Suite 211, Baltimore, MD 21202. 301-576-0770. The
Source ID STY682. CompuServe 74156, 2365.

PC Tech Journal is an independent journal, not affiliated in any
way with International Business Machines Corporation. IBM is
a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp.
Entire contents Copyright ® 1984 Ziff-Davis Publishing
Company. All rights reserved; reproduction in whole or in part
without permission is prohibited. Contact Jean Lamensdorf,
Manager, Reprints/Rights &. Permissions. BPA membership
(Selected Market Audit Division) applied for October 1983.

CIRCLE NO. 225 ON READER SERVICE CARD

DIRECTIONS Will Fastie

Printer Standards

After more than fifteen years of inexpensive printers,
we still have weak standards.

The computer industry's record of
setting and then sticking to stan¬
dards is worse than my record of
getting home on time. My wife can
tell you how terrible that must be.

One reason for this is just plain
stubbornness on the part of the
manufacturers. 1 mean, give some¬
body just a few unused codes in the
ASCII set and WHAM!, they've got
a way to accomplish some special,
proprietary function. The thought
of doing what everyone else is doing
is anathema: after all, the whole
point is to offer greater features or
to deliver some gimmick.

The industry has done quite
well in some ways. From an elec¬
tronic point of view, we benefit
each day from numerous standards
that we probably take for granted.
The RS-232-C standard is so strong
that we can buy an adapter, cable,
and modem with 99.44-percent cer¬
tainty that it will all plug together
and work. The 5 ^4-inch floppy
drive has become so standardized
that add-in drives can be purchased
from mail-order sources with confi¬
dence. A wide selection of display
monitors uses either the composite
or the RGB standard. Most printers
will interface either to the so-called
Centronics parallel interface or to
an RS-232-C serial port.

Beyond the electrical interface
is the question of how a device at¬
tached via one of these interconnect
standards behaves. Most computer
systems operate serial ports properly
and consistently. Displays usually

differ only in resolution, and so far
it has been easy and economical to
build displays that meet the resolu¬
tion requirements of small comput¬
ers. Diskette drives have been more
complicated, but there is a program
for the PC that can read and write
about 40 different formats and con¬
vert data from one format to anoth¬
er, so the problem of incompatible
systems can be solved.

Printers, on the other hand,
don't conform as well. Actually,
they don't conform at all It's not
only irritating, it's confusing.

Most printers available today,
whether dot matrix, daisy wheel, or
some other technology, are able to
print at least a subset of 7-bit ASCII
characters that I will refer to as the
96-character set. It includes the nu¬
merals, upper- and lower-case let¬
ters, common punctuation marks,
and a few control characters such as
line feed and carriage return. This
character set is sufficient to meet
the needs of most users when it
comes to programming or word pro¬
cessing. At this level, most printers
can be said to conform to a standard,

That is, however, the standard
of 15 years ago. The revolution in
dot matrix technology has spawned
a generation of printers with ex¬
tended character sets, multiple type
fonts, multiple pitch sizes, print en¬
hancements, and (this is the rub)
graphics capabilities. Not only do
these printers support a full 256
characters (8-bit ASCII), some pro¬
vide several full 256-character sets.

Things got rolling with the
TRS-80 Model I. It is clear in retro¬
spect that someone saw how the
low resolution of the Model I's dis¬
play could be duplicated with a spe¬
cial block-character set built into
the printer. Soon, Epson began de¬
livering printers that included this
character set. Epson also provided a
dot-by-dot graphics capability, and
the era of the contemporary person¬
al computer printer was born. Ep¬
son's MX series of printer became
something of a standard.

Now that's a good story. Unfor¬
tunately, another company came
along with its improvement and
mucked things up. Have you
guessed who? Yup. IBM.

At first, IBM kept pretty close
to the standard. The first model of
the IBM PC printer, an MX-80 in
disguise, even included the TRS-80
graphics character set, which IBM
called the "ASCII-Graphic Matrix."
fust as IBM announced its printer,
however, Epson began to include
the Graftax-PIus ROM as a standard
feature in its models. IBM followed
with the Personal Computer Graph¬
ics Printer. It was at this point that
IBM made a proprietary decision.

IBM's new ROM removed the
TRS-80 block graphics entirely in
favor of a representation of the IBM
character set. The new printer was
thus capable of printing almost
every character that could be dis¬
played on the screen, with some
limitations. In addition, the IBM
printer was almost, but not quite.

September i984

Most Program Editors
Are Shockingly Primitive.

Use Pmate™ once, and you’ll
never go back to an ordinary
text editor again. Pmate is more
than a powerful programmer’s
text processor. It’s an inter¬
pretive language especially
designed for customizing te)d
processing and editing.

Just like other powerful edi¬
tors, Pmate* features full-screen
single-key editing, automatic
disk buffering, ten auxiliary
buffers, horizontal and vertical
scrolling, plus a “garbage
stack’’ buffer for retrieval of
deleted strings. But, that’s just
for openers.

What really separates Pmate
from the rest is macro magic. A
built-in macro language with
over 120 commands and single¬
keystroke “Instant Commands”
to handle multiple command

sequences. So powerful, you
can “customize” keyboard
and command structure to
match your exact needs.

Get automatic comments on
code. Delete comments. Check
syntax. Translate code from
one language to another. Set
up menus. Help screens. You
name it.

And, Pmate has its own set
of variables, if-then statements,
iterative loops, numeric calcu¬
lations, a hex to decimal and
decimal to hex mode, binary
conversion, and a trace mode.
You can even build your own
application program right
inside your text processor.

So, why work with primitive
tools any longer than you have
to? Pmate by Phoenix. $225.
Call (800)344-7200, or write.

Phoenix Computer Products Corporation

1416 Providence Highway, Suite 220
Norwood, MA 02062
In Massachusetts (617) 769-7020

* Pmate is designed for microcomputers using the Intel 8086 family of
processors, and running MS-DOS!^ A custom version is available for
the IBM PC, Tl Professional, Wang Professional, DEC Rainbow,
and Z80 running under CP/M!^

Pmate is a trademark of Phoenix Software Associates Ltd.

MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research. Inc.

DIRECTIONS

CIRCLE NO. 143 ON READER SERVICE CARD

compatible with the Graftrax-Plus
standard. This new IBM printer was
thus quite attractive for the user
who desired an integrated system.

Unfortunately, it was an¬
nounced at about the same time the
next wave of the Epson product
line, the FX family, emerged. The
FX, with its greater speed and en¬
hanced capabilities, was an attrac¬
tive choice, but it did not provide
the IBM character set.

Meanwhile, a Japanese printer
invasion was underway. I hope you
are not surprised to learn that these
printers conformed to no standard.
To be fair, some did match the Ep¬
son specifications, but most did it
their own way, and none included
the IBM-style character set.

That leaves us with a mess. As
PC owners, we would like to have
printers with all the nice, new fea¬
tures, but it is also handy to have a
machine that matches properly
with the computer. There seems to
be no way we can have IBM capa¬
bility and the most up-to-date fea¬
tures in one machine, although no
technological barriers prevent it.
Also, as software developers, we
would like to write applications and
systems software that are indepen¬
dent of printer hardware yet take
advantage of the more powerful fea¬
tures, particularly graphics, that the
printers can offer.

I think it's about time for a
stronger standard to emerge. The TI
855 printer demonstrates that such a
standard is possible. It includes an
Epson-like mode as well as a Diablo
630 emulation. Font cartridges are
already available. Forthcoming op¬
tions for the machine are supposed
to provide IBM compatibility and
loadable character-set definitions.

Printers need to provide power
and flexibility. More important,
they need to become as interchange¬
able as stereo components. I believe
that such standardization would
have a far-reaching effect on the
useability of small computers, to the
long-term benefit of us all. nm^i

PC Tech Journal

Call Micro Mart’s
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Show Our Ads To Your
Purchasing Agent, Please

CIRCLE NO. 203 ON READER SERVICE CARD

What do you get when you cross
1200 baud, free on-line time,
and extra features at a price Hayes
can’t match?

Shopping for a modem
doesn’t have to be a riddle. A
tedious sifting through claims
and counterclaims. A quest
for the best that raises more
questions than it answers.

The new MultiModem,
from Multi-Tech Systems,
gives you the right answers
from the start. The answers to
all your questions about what
a first-rate intelligent modem
should do for you.

Data Transmission
Speed?

The MultiModem gives
you a choice—either 1200 or
300 bits per second. 1200 for
fast, efficient communications
and lower long-distance
charges. Like when you’re
downloading data from the
corporate computer, or swap¬
ping files with a friend across
the country. 300 bps for your
less demanding applications,
like checking out bulletin
boards, playing games, or
having on-line keyboard
conversations.

Free On-Line Time?

With the MultiModem you
get CompuServe’s DemoPak
—a free two-hour demonstra¬
tion of their service, and up to
seven more free hours of on¬
line time if vou subscribe. You
also get a ^50 usage credit
from NewsNet, a service
which lets you tap into 150
different specialized business
newsletters.

Inteiiigence? Extra
Features?

Of course, the Multi-
Modem automatically dials,
answers, and disconnects.

But it does a few extra things
too, things the Hayes Smart-
modem 1200'“ doesn’t. Like
recognize dial tones and busy
signals, so the MultiModem
will automatically redial, or
automatically try a different
number. And It remembers
phone numbers too, up to six
of them, in Its battery-backed
memory.

Trademarks— MultiModem. MultiCom PC. Multi-Tech
Systems. Inc.—CompuServe: CompuServe Information
Services, anH&R Block company — NewsNet: NewsNet.
Inc.—Smartmodem: Hayes Microcomputer Products,
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CIRCLE NO. 204 ON READER SERVICE CARD

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This price comparison is based on the Suggested List Price as of2.22.84 for the IBM Color Graphics Adapter.

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CIRCLE NO. 125 ON READER SERVICE CARD

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CIRCLE NO. 236 ON READER SERVICE CARD

LETTERS

Patching Things Up

The article "Time on Your Hands"

(Bob Smith and Tom Puckett, May
1984, page 146) addresses a problem I
would dearly like to put to rest. I have
crashed my system many times with
the DEBUG TRACE command as dis¬
cussed in that article. Of course, 1 am re¬
luctant to install a patch in DEBUG
that I cannot understand. I may then
suffer even worse problems. Your article
has solved nothing for me.

I use DOS 2.0, and 1 refer only to
the patch shown for that version of
DEBUG on page 158. The code to re¬
solve the problem is inserted at offset
2E80. It appears that the authors believe
that this is beyond the end of the code
loaded from DEBUG.COM. I infer this
from the fact that the contents of CX,
which contains the number of bytes
loaded, is 2E80, and they proceed to in¬
crease the length by the length of their
added code. In fact, the code is placed
on top of DEBUG. Since COM files are
loaded starting at offset 0100, the length
2E80 runs out to 2F7F. If the authors
meant to replace part of DEBUG, there
is no need to increase its length. If they
meant to put their code at the end, it is
in the wrong place. In any case, it is
not sufficient to place the patch at the
end since that is the location of the new
program segment built by DEBUG.

I have installed the patch as shown
and observed no problems. However, I
am concerned that it is a bug waiting to
show itself. Because of the apparent
confusion of the authors, I can have no
confidence. Since I have no idea what
this region of DEBUG.COM is for, I
cannot tell whether a problem is likely
or not. I doubt, however, that this part
of DEBUG.COM has no purpose.

Can anyone find an appropriate
place to put this patch code?

Robert Duncan Scott
Cincinnati, OH

R.D. Scotts confusion is understandable
and is my fault because I overlooked the
effect of the PSFs offset. The result is
that 1 wmecessarily increased DEBUG's
length—our patch actually fits within
the extra space at the end of DEBUG.
However, this enor is harmless.

A more detailed analysis of
DEBUG'S memory usage shows the fol¬
lowing: DEBUG is loaded at offset lOOh
in a certain segment. Its nominal end is
2E80h bytes later at 2F7Fh. Its internal
stack top is at 2AE2h with the bytes
above there to 2CDDh taken up mostly
by static data (message text, etc.). The
large area from 2CDEh to 2F0Fh is used
as a temporary work area (I don't know
why it's so large). The new PSP built by
DEBUG begins at 2F10h. Again, the
nominal end of the program is at
2F7Fh—beyond the point of the new
PSP, suggesting that the program's
length was rounded up (perhaps to a
multiple of 128 bytes—the usual size of
a Disk Transfer Area).

Our patch appears from 2E80h to
2EBlh—toward the end of the tempo¬
rary work area. It originally took up
more of the space toward 2F10h, but
subsequent changes reduced it to the
cunent size. 1 decided not to relocate
the final version of the patch closer to
the new PSP, as that accompUshed little.
The beginning address of the patch and
the program length are coincidentally
equal. All address calculations were
done based upon snuggUng up to the be¬
ginning of the new PSP at 2F10h. The
change in length of the patched program
was an enor—though harmless.

Considerable usage of the patched
program has shown that no part of DE¬
BUG tramples on the patched area, al¬
though that can't be taken as proof. As
with most patches to code for which no
source is available, one can never be ab¬
solutely sure—only confident to a high
degree, which we are.

—Bob Smith

3-D Question

I have been exposed to BASIC off and
on over the years— since about the time
that it left Dartmouth, in fact. I think
that I have learned BASIC and then for¬
gotten it about four different times.

In all that time, I have never seen a
program equal to the one published in
the May issue of PC Tech Journal ("3-D
Graphics for the IBM PC," Jay Mallin,
page 36), in regard to concept, documen¬
tation, clarity, and even listing format. I
have used a similar program, supplied
by Digital Research for DR. LOGO, in
my school classes, but because of the
lack of documentation I never really
knew what was going on. (Your pro¬
gram is orders of magnitude faster than
the DR> LOGO version.)

Congratulations on a fine article.

I have been planning for some
time to add an 8087 chip to my PC, and
after reading your article I made the
plunge and have placed an order for
one. Is it possible, with the 8087, to pro¬
duce a THREED that actually rotates an
object while you watch?

Sam Stan
Rose Valley, PA

To modify the THREED program to ro¬
tate objects while you watch, you would
have to make the the program divide ro¬
tations into small increments—maybe
one degree—and rapidly move through
them. Simply plugging in an 8087 won't
provide the speed you need, since IBM's
interpretive BASIC does not use the
chip. But if you compile the program
with a BASIC compiler that makes use
of the 8087, it will probably provide the
effect you are after. How well it works
will depend partly on the speed of the
line-drawing and other graphics routines
the compiler provides.

—Jay MaUin

PC Tech Journal

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CIRCLE NO. 144 ON READER SERVICE CARD

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CIRCLE NO. 180 ON READER SERVICE CARD

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CIRCLE NO. 154 ON READER SERVICE CARD

LETTERS

An Easier Way

Please accept the following contribution,
which we believe to be a better ap¬
proach to intercepting commands under
DOS than was explained in "Disarming
DOS FORMAT" (fames A. Folts, July
1984, page 32). This is a trick we
learned from National CBS timesharing
in the early 1970s.

ECHO OFF

REM(((FORMAT.BAT)))

REM PREVENTS USE OF
FORMAT COMMAND LACK¬
ING DRIVE SPECIFICATION
REM REQUIRES FORMAT.COM
TO BE RENAMED AS
FORMATTD.COM
IF NOT '' %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

%6 %7 %8 %9

IF '' ="%1" ECHO DRIVE

SPECIFICATION MISSING—
PLEASE TRY AGAIN

James M. Detmei
Detmer Systems Co.
New Canaan, CT

The problem of the FORMAT program
mentioned in "Disarming DOS Format"
is troublesome. However, there is a
more straightforward solution than the
one the article proposes. Direct modifi¬
cation of operating software should al¬
ways be avoided. Those who live by the
patch will surely die by it.

Here is my solution to the problem.
First, rename FORMAT.COM to some¬
thing you would not ordinarily use,
such as FMT###.COM. Now create a
batch file named FORMAT.BAT. It
should contain only one line: FMT###
A: /V. Now when you type FORMAT
you will format a floppy on drive A:,
but on an XT that is about all you use
the FORMAT command for anyway.

Daniel T. Sullivan
Bolton, MA

Technical Knockout

1 looked and looked, but I couldn't find
where you hid figure 1 in "3-D Graph¬
ics for the IBM PC" (Jay Mallin, May
1984, page 36). When you find it, please
send me a copy.

Does Susan Glinert-Gole (sic) really
spell her name the way it appears in
"Name, Rank, and Serial Number"
(May 1984, page 192)?

Does Cole/Gole really want line
430 of ROMREAD.BAS in this same ar¬
ticle to read .... ? The program
runs much better if it's ..".. ..

Does Scott McCann really want R1
and R2 in figure 1 of "Using a Switch-

Type Joystick on the IBM PC" (May
1984, p. 195) to be 50K each? The cir¬
cuit works much better if they are
100k (small k) each.

And this is a "Tech" magazine?

Bill Kiaengel Jr.

Valley Stream, NY

Point by point:

1 . It wasn't there. I found it, and
it's reproduced below.

2. Nope. That one surprised us, too.
G-C is making us pay for it, believe me.

3. Our listings are reproduced di¬
rectly from letter-quality copies of the
programs. The original definitely had a
tilde that got lost in the reproduction
and printing shuffle. We consider our re¬
production of listings to be the best any¬
where, but we are in the process of im¬
proving them for the sole purpose of
eliminating this kind of problem.

4. No. 100k is conect. We blew it.
(We had several letters—some of which
are published below—calling this enor
to our attention. Thank you all.)

5. Yes. Even our mistakes are
technical.

—WF

Figure 1 for "3-D Graphics for the IBM
PC":

In Search of the Lost
Joystick

1 read with interest "Switch-Type Joy¬
sticks on the PC" (Scott McCann, May
1984, page 195). 1 have one comment
and one question. First, the resistive val¬
ues shown in the schematic and men¬
tioned in the text should be lOOK ohm
resistors. Second, I wrote to Fair Radio to
obtain the joystick named in the article
and received a catalogue that made no
mention of this joystick. Does anybody
know where I can buy a "professional"
joystick with SPDT switches?

William M. McDonald
Salem, VA

We did a little checking, and, sure
enough, we can't find the joystick in
question. However, professional-quality
joysticks and other input devices are
available from Measurement Systems,
Inc., 121 Water Street, Norwalk, CT
06854, 203-838-5561. Measurement Sys¬
tems was kind enough to send us one of
the joysticks (model 570), and it is very
fine indeed. It also costs $200. If you

need serious, industrial-grade devices,
see these folks.

—WF

In the article "Using a Switch-Type
Joystick on the IBM PC," I believe the
resistor values should be lOOK ohms
each, for R1 and R2, if their parallel
connection is to be 50K ohms as in¬
tended. From my quick analysis, the
scheme should work as the author de¬
scribes with this correction. Please ad¬
vise if the error is mine, however.

Your magazine offers a very good
format, and 1 enjoy the explicit nature
of the topics, which allow a reader to
put the information to immediate use.
Please continue the good work.

David J. Anderson
Council Bluffs, I A

dBASE II Overkill

As a subscriber to PC Tech Journal from
the beginning, 1 have generally enjoyed
your magazine very much. However, 1
must protest about the contents of your
June 1984 issue.

1 realize that dBASE 11 is a very
popular program on the IBM PC and
that software written in dBASE II is
used by a large number of people. I
think that frequent articles on the pro¬
gram are quite justified. But an entire is¬
sue of a monthly magazine devoted al¬
most exclusively to one product!

I work with a wide variety of appli¬
cations, including database, word pro¬
cessing, spreadsheet, graphics, and com¬
munications, on more than 60 micro¬
computers. I am responsible for finding
the best software for each application
and helping people use the software ef¬
fectively. I am interested in new tech¬
niques and products in all areas of mi¬
crocomputing. The people I work with
do not have time or inclination to ex¬
plore these areas themselves.

I look to publications like PC Tech
Journal for help in discovering new
hardware and software products, along
with technical pointers that may help
me in my work. It so happens that we
do not use dBASE II, but even if we did,

I would prefer articles on a variety of
subjects. For me, the investment of time
and money in your June issue had a
0-percent return.

Alan Dolgoff
Microcomputer Manager
Hambrecht & Quist
San Francisco, CA

cos i

-sin i

sin i

-cos i

PC Tech Journal

LETTERS

Pascal times more

I read your review of the various Pascal
compilers with great interest ("Pascal
Times Four/' Jeff Duntemann and-
Michael Bentley, July 1984, page 58).
The parts dealing with Turbo Pascal
were very fair, at least as amended with
the material on version 2.0.1 would like
to add a few comments.

Not only does the compiler take
you back to the editor upon detecting a
compilation error—the same thing hap¬
pens on run-time errors as well. This is
possible even when you have compiled
to a disk file instead of to memory. If
you've ever spent a day tracking down
UCSD Pascal's cryptic "floating-point
error" and "value range error" messages,
you will appreciate the luxury of being
directed immediately to the statement
that is at fault.

Turbo's habit of clearing the
screen at the start of execution seems to
be Borland's sole error of judgment.

You can defeat it with the aid of the
debugger, however. In all programs I
have examined, there's an INT 10 (hex)
located at 02FC in the code segment:
change this to a pair of NOPs and the
screen will not clear. Since I don't use
Turbo on a PC clone, I don't know how
many other INT 10s would have to be
disabled to avoid crashing the system,
but a little prowling around with the
debugger should do the trick. Since
these are .COM files, rather than .EXE
ones, the debugger will not make any
difficulties about writing the revised
version back to the file.

Turbo programs wipe out the tran¬
sient part of DOS, so after any program
is run, COMMAND.COM must be re¬
loaded. As a result, the keyboard buffer
is cleared, and programs cannot be re¬
run by means of F3.

Turbo programs are compact as
well as fast. The runoff program that
typed this letter occupies a .COM file
that is 16K bytes long. The same runoff
program written in Microsoft's
FORTRAN-77 results in an .EXE file
that is 37K bytes long.

Turbo's flash compiler gives you
that same feeling of immediacy that is
the sole redeeming feature of BASIC.

The difference Turbo's quick turn¬
around makes in developing a compli¬
cated program has to be experienced to
be believed. Of course, you're dealing
with an infinitely better language than
any BASIC known to me—but that
should not need to be said.

Thomas W. Parsons
Brooklyn, NY

Your recent article on the various
Pascals was very good. However, as an
owner of Microsoft Pascal I would like
to make a few points. I agree that the
documentation is horrible, but there are
three areas that seem to have been over¬
looked in the article. These are the
metacommands (specifically Snofloat-
calls/Sfloatcalls), the null object files
(nulf.obj, nule6.obj, and nulr7.obj), and
precision control.

First, the "floatcalls" metacom¬
mands specify how real math operations
are done. The Sfloatcalls command is
faster but requires more code. Second,
the null object files replace potentially
unused units in the code, such as the
file system, error handling, or real oper¬
ations, respectively. Third, the preci¬
sion-control procedures (MPSRQQ,
MPBRQQ, MPDRQQ) set the maximum
precision for real numbers (23 to 64
bits). Below is a table of the TRIGTEST
benchmarks with various options (using
MS-Pascal 3.13).

trigtest size: 31068

(Sfloatcalls) 0:07.0

trigtest size: 30212

(Sfloatcalls,nule6) 0:07.0
trigtest size: 31756

(Sfloatcalls, 0:04.9

mpsrqq)

As you can see, with the minimum real
precision the benchmark required a sig¬
nificantly smaller amount of time.

Peter A. Mead
Greenwich, CT

Since I expect to buy a Pascal compiler
soon, I was especially interested in read¬
ing "Pasdal Times Four." I had already
eliminated IBM's release 1.0 compiler
from consideration, but I want to find
out more about its release 2.0, men¬
tioned in "Tech Releases" (July 1984,
page 192). IBM's spec sheet sounds al¬
most identical to the Microsoft release
3.2 covered by your review. Two ques¬
tions come to mind:

What Microsoft release number
does the IBM release 2.0 correspond to?

Did IBM use Microsoft's documen¬
tation or has it written its own? Is it any
better than Microsoft's?

Thanks for a well-written article
that helps to sort out the differences be¬
tween these compilers.

Bill Tinsley
Iowa City, lA

There is no direct connection between
IBM Pascal V2.0 and any Microsoft re¬
lease of MS Pascal. However, we do

know that MS Pascal V3.2 is a later
(and more powerful) release of the com¬
piler. Microsoft's manual set for V3.2 is
a daunting document, hut it is still miles
ahead of either IBM V2.0 or any pre¬
vious Microsoft document. I know of no
good reason to buy IBM Pascal over MS
Pascal—why place yet another layer of
bureaucracy between yourself and the
manufacxmer of the product? It is still
unclear to me what IBM could add to
MS Pascal except confusion.

MS Pascal is nearly impenetrable to
the Pascal newcomer. Although you
may want it eventually to compile your
magnum opus, I recommend picking up
Turbo Pflscul V2.0 to cut your teeth on.
Now that it has full heap management,
graphics, and overlays, Turbo V2.0 is
shoulder-to-shoulder with the big guns.

—Jeff Duntemarm

In Defense of Proloks

Mitchell Schoenbrum's letter concern¬
ing Prolok software security diskettes
("Proloks and Panaceas," June 1984,
page 16) was somewhat bittersweet. Al¬
though he was highly complimentary,
as was the author of "New Weapons for
Fighting Software Piracy" (Werner L.
Frank, February 1984, page 71), we are
afraid Mr. Schoenbrum is laboring un¬
der a few misconceptions.

He addressed the level of security
as his primary concern. We are realistic
enough to agree that no software protec¬
tion scheme is totally impenetrable. But
then neither is the lock on your front
door. The understood purpose is to keep
the majority of offenders out. Prolok op¬
erates on this premise, and we have
positioned it in the marketplace as an
easily installed, low-cost, highly effec¬
tive (probably 99 percent or better)
means of software protection.

The friend Mr. Schoenbrum refers
to undoubtedly was using one of our
earlier versions. Our latest version of¬
fers six times the security level, plus we
are constantly upgrading our product.
Currently, there isn't a copy utility
available that can penetrate our latest
Prolok product, and it is impervious to
standard debug equipment.

Again, we do not promise a panacea
to software piracy. We simply offer the
most effective, cost-efficient protection
against the majority of offenders.

Michael H. DarUng
Vice president, sales and marketing
Vault Corporation
Westlake Village, CA

September 1984

Get yourself a

This little critter comes with speciaRy-designed software
that fRes through the maze of keystrokes on the most
popular business programs faster than you
can say “cheese.”

Miaosoft* Mouse puts the power to run
Multiplan* Lotus 1'2'3,'“ VisiCalc
WordStar* in the palm
of your hand. CRck
the left button on
the mouse, a custom
menu appears. In
EngRsh, not hierogly-
ahics. CRck the right
Dutton and execute your

command: move text or data, edit, format, print. AU at
bRnding speed without touching the keyboard.

It also lets you create your own menus for editing and
formatting existing appRcation programs. So people can
learn programs quicker and do more productive work as
they learn.

The miyitiest mouse.

Microsoft Mouse runs circles around other mice.

It is the high performance mouse for the IBM* PC and
PC XT From the company known for high

trained mouse.

performance software. Microsoft BASIC is the language
spoken by nine out of ten microcomputers worldwide.

MICROSOFT Our MS'DOS operating system tells

The High Performance Software yOUt IBM PC KoW tO think.

So don’t monkey around with any other mouse. Call

800'426'9400 (in^shington State call 206'828'8088)

for the name of your nearest Microsoft dealer. Then
go with Microsoft Mouse.

The mouse that soars.

Microsoft and Muldplan are registered trademarks and MS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Lotus 1-2-3 is a trademark of Lotus Development Corporation. VisiCalc
is a registered trademark of VisiCorp. WordStar is a registered trademark of MicroPro.

IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Qirporation.

Sol Libes

RANDOM RUMORS
AND GOSSIP
Microsoft President Bill
Gates recently expressed the
view that IBM has "a year
or two to go" as the prevail¬
ing microcomputer standard
before 80286 technology
takes over. IBM is expected
to announce its 80286-based
system either this month or
next with initial deliveries
expected at year's end. This
should be an expansion of
the PC family and not a re¬
placement for any of the
family members. IBM is
also rumored to be develop¬
ing a speedy—300 lines per
minute—new printer for the
PC. Compaq introduced
in July a desktop hard disk
system using the 8086 micro¬
processor and dual-speed
clocking (IBM standard—
4.77Mhz and a higher
speed—8Mhz). At least two
other companies are already
showing such products. The
machine comes equipped
with a built-in tape back-up
system for the hard disk.

IBM provides no such tape
back-up for the XT; about 27
disks are needed to back-up
the hard disk. Sharp Elec¬
tronics is reportedly al¬
ready showing to several
computer manufacturers an
electroluminescent display
panel of 80 characters by 25
lines; the display has a thick¬
ness of only 1.5 inches.
Hewlett-Packard is the
first company to introduce a
product that uses it. IBM is
developing a 3.5-inch hard
disk drive that stores 20
Mbytes; the company is ex¬
pected to use these new "mi¬
cro-Winchesters" in systems
that will be introduced next
year and to offer them to
other computer makers.

Eagle Computer, a mak¬
er of IBM-PC compatibles, is
reported to be having prob¬
lems with cash flow and
poor sales and the company
is considering some layoffs.
IBM's most recent price re¬
ductions may exacerbate Ea¬
gle's problems. Digital
Research is expected soon
to release Crystal, a software
developer toolkit containing
a large collection of routines
that can be merged and inte¬
grated into programs to re¬
duce development time and
to provide features such as
menus, graphics, and multi¬
tasking. Several vertical and
scientific application soft¬
ware packages are soon to be
announced by IBM. Expect
a big emphasis on education¬

al software. IBM dealers re¬
portedly have been applying
increasing pressure on the
company to allow them to
sell the 3270-PC, which cur¬
rently is available only via
IBM's own sales force. Re¬
ports now are circulating
that IBM is seriously consid¬
ering this for selected busi¬
ness-oriented dealers. IBM is
expected to double the num¬
ber of retail outlets (4,000 by
1985) for its personal com¬
puter products within the
coming year. Most of this
new increase is expected to
come from office equipment
dealers. With PC/r sales not
measuring up to expecta¬
tions, rumors are rampant
that IBM is seriously con¬
sidering distribution of the /r
through mass market outlets.

ON THE PC

IBM is reportedly beta test¬
ing a multitasking version of
MS-DOS for its forthcoming
80286-based system. Howev¬
er, it should be noted that
Digital Research, Inc. (DRI)
has been delivering a multi¬
processing DOS with PC-
DOS compatibility since
July. That product. Concur¬
rent PC-DOS, will run up to
256 PC-DOS or CP/M tasks
concurrently on a standard
PC; four of these tasks can
be viewed on the display.
Concurrent PC-DOS also has
a true windowing system
and communications support.

DRI has also introduced a
plug-in board for the PC that
turns Concurrent PC-DOS
into a multi-user system that
will support up to four users.
The board and associated
software are called StarLink.
It thus appears that DRI has
about a six- to nine-month
lead over IBM's introduction
of a multi-user PC system,
although that lead may suf¬
fer from Concurrent PC-
DOS's lack of full PC-DOS
2.0 compatibility.

^ _

MULTIPROCESSING

Even with the new base
price of $999, however, the
machine may be too expen¬
sive for this channel. Finally,
rumors of an IBM lap-size
portable keep popping up.
The latest comes from Eu¬
rope, where IBM is said to be
testing an 8088-based ma¬
chine made by Matsushi¬
ta Electric Co., Ltd.
with bubble memory, ROM
software, a display with 8
lines by 80 characters, and a
disk drive.

PC Tech Journal

ILLUSTRATION • DAVID POVILAITIS

ILLUSTRATION • KEVIN McPHEE

THE TECH JOURNAL

NEWSUNE

News, views, and gossip on the IBM
and IBM-like marketplace

IBM NETWORKING

IBM will probably intro¬
duce an interim LAN system
from an outside vendor to
tide it over until it can intro¬
duce its own LAN in 1986
or 1987. The company is
known to be evaluating LAN
systems from Sytek, 3Com,
and Ungermann-Bass for pos¬
sible adoption. IBM has
named six of the seven Bell
operating companies as dis¬
tributors and installers of its
LAN cabling system.

IBM is known to be work¬
ing with Texas Instruments
(TI) on the development of
ICs for its LAN project. TI is
believed to have run into de¬
velopment problems, which
could be causing IBM to
reassess its fundamental
LAN architecture. Develop¬
ment of a networking system
to interconnect a large num¬
ber of varied devices that
will work reliably and easily
is a mammoth task, and IBM
appears to be taking the time
to do it properly. Further,
the demand for LAN sys¬
tems appears to be develop¬
ing slowly; IBM really may
not be under a great deal of
pressure to get its system
out. The company is already

known to have wired 10 of
its buildings in Rye Brook,
New York, with 3.5 million
feet of cable connecting
2,800 devices, and it is wir¬
ing 11 additional buildings.
Thus, IBM is expected to do
intensive testing of its LAN
system before it is released.
This will take time.

CUSTOMS SEIZES
PC COPIES

The U.S. Customs service in
Seattle recently seized a large
number of allegedly counter¬
feit copies of the IBM PC, af¬
ter IBM registered its copy¬
right with customs and
pointed out the copies. IBM
thus is following in Apple's
footsteps in attempting to
protect its copyrights.

A number of Far Eastern
suppliers have been shipping
copies of the Apple II into
the United States without
the copyrighted ROMs, and
Apple has requested that
U.S. Customs take action
against these companies.
Apple has also encountered a
similar problem in Canada,
where the government has
been less aggressive in stop¬
ping illegal importing of
Apple copies. A large num¬

ber of these copies make
their way into the U.S. from
Canada. The likelihood is
that the same will happen
with IBM PC copies.

IBM may be in for more
problems as a software house
in Norwood, Massachusetts,
called Phoenix Software As¬
sociates has announced the
availability of a BIOS ROM
that is functionally identical
to the copyrighted IBM BIOS
ROM and yet does not in¬
fringe on the IBM copyright.
A license for the Phoenix
ROM and Phoenix version of
PC-DOS 2.1 is only $290,000.
Several Far East vendors have
already taken out licenses,
and PC-compatibles are ex¬
pected to be introduced
shortly from more than a
dozen Taiwanese and Japa¬
nese manufacturers.

At the same time, IBM
has added a ROM BIOS up¬
grade to its price list. Al¬
though the chip contains the
entire BIOS and thus would
seem fair game for the man¬
ufacturers of clones, IBM is
protecting itself by requiring
that purchasers exchange
their old ROM for the new
one. The new ROM, besides
incorporating a number of
fixes for known bugs, also
includes the ROM scan fea¬
ture that is needed to operate
the IBM Cluster or to allow
a boot from a hard disk.

IBM PRODUCT
CENTERS —

GAIN OR LOSS?

IBM recently denied rumors
that its chain of 80 Product
Centers was operating at a
loss and that it does not plan
to open any more centers. In¬
dustry pundits expect IBM to

continue opening Product
Centers and possibly to have
as many as 100 in operation
by the end of the year.

Rumors have been circu¬
lating in the industry that
IBM's Product Centers were
having problems with high
labor costs, high overhead,
and low sales volume as a re¬
sult of high prices and lim¬
ited product selection. Future
Computing recently reported
that the Product Centers ac¬
count for about 5 percent of
IBM's PC sales, whereas in¬
dependent stores and chains
account for 51 percent of
sales. The remaining sales
are via VARs, VADs, and
IBM's sales force. Previous
estimates had IBM selling as
much as 65 percent through
its direct channels.

RANDOM NEWS BITS
Intel has given Oki Elec¬
tronic Industry of

Tokyo a license to make a
CMOS version of the 8088
microprocessor used in the
IBM PC. Fiarris is already
making a CMOS version of
the 8086, which is used in
the HP-110 portable, and also
will soon be making an 8088
CMOS chip. Dataquest, a
market research outfit, re¬
ports that notebook-size com¬
puters made up 3 percent of
systems sold last year, and it
predicts sales of such com¬
puters this year will increase
to 7 percent and by 1988
will rise to 30 percent. Sony
has introduced a color moni¬
tor, using its Trinitron CRT,
that it claims will display
1,280 by 1,024 pixels.

September i984

IBM PC USERS

'leamMa
and perf(

Let the TeamMate 1000 Series of Winchester and Kodak 3.3MB floppy subsystems set
productivityrecords for your IBM PC or compatible. Taking only minutes to install,
weVe got all the competition beat. TeamMate requires no special software or format¬
ting diskettes. All you need is DOS 2.0! j

We have a variety of configurations to fill a variety of needs. Like the 1

TeamMate 1110 add-in 10MB Winchester, with power consump- : '

tion so low it can be safely installed in even fully configured PCs.

Or try the TeamMate 1103 KODAK 3.3MB floppy add-in sub¬
system. Also software transparent, it gives you 2.78MB of
rugged floppy storage- perfect for Winchester backup or
as a low cost alternative to Winchester disks. Or get
the advantages of both with our TeamMate 1213
Winchester/Kodak floppy add-on combination.

All at record prices.

Even TeamMate’s customer support is fast.

Should your subsystem need any service
during the first 3 months of the ^month
warranty period, your dealer will be
shipped a swapout unit within
24 hours!

Ask for TeamMate IBM and
Apple subsystems at your local
computer dealer. Or call us at

(408) 496-0434.

TeamMate by Data Technology

2775 Northwestern Parkway
Santa Clara, CA 95051
TEL: (408) 496-0434
TWX: 910-338-2044

COHERENT™ IS SUPERIOR TO UNIX*
AND irs AVAILABLE TODAY
ON THE IBM PC.

Mark Williams Company hasn’t just taken a mini-computer
operating system, like UNIX, and ported it to the PC. We
wrote COHERENT ourselves. We were able to bring UNIX
capability to the PC with the PC in mind, making it the most
efficient personal computer work station available at an
unbelievable price.

For the first time you get a multi-user, multitasking operating
system on your IBM PC. Because COHERENT is UNIX-
compatible, UNIX software will run on the PC under
COHERENT.

The software system includes a C-compiler and over 100 utili¬
ties, all for $500. Similar environments cost thousands more.

COHERENT on the IBM PC requires a hard disk and 256K
memory. It’s available on the IBM XT, and Tecmar, Davong
and Corvus hard disks.

Available now. For additional information, call or write,

Mark Williams Company

1430 West Wrightwood, Chicago, Illinois 60614

312/472-6659

CIRCLE NO. 164 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Mark

Williams

Company

COHERENT is a trademark of Mark Williams Company.
*UNIX is as trademark of Bell Laboratories.

CIRCLE NO. 186 ON READER SERVICE CARD

V ,,„vOff „..vo->

«ll'®' =^«» S''* 00«

, 00»'fc^S5* ’'<'“S”

*>' ^ ViSS

iace-

'N»''*V ,,0llS-- .ase4

FOR THE IBM® PC, IBM® XT, COMPAQ.™ i

CORONA.™ CORONA™ PORTABLE. LEADING EDGE,® EAGLE PC.-" TAVA.™ f

_ We’ve turned

hard disk storage into
an affordable reality.

^Miovable
1 disk system.
Allows easy primary
or backup storage
through inter- /
changeable disks.

$1895

Half-height streamer
tape system. Ideal data
backup system for
large-scale
storage.

$1095

Half-height 10
Mbyte internal hard
disk system.

$895

Half-height external
hard disk system (10,
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accommodates
half-height backup
system.

$ 1295-$2295

Kamerman Labs combines the speed and storage capacity
of hard disk technology with prices you can’t afford to pass up.

A dramatic leap in performance for
your personal computer.

Even the smallest Kamerman Labs
hard disk unit gives you 30 times the
storage capacity of a typical floppy
disk. Sophisticated business and pro¬
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can now be handled with ease.

Better yet, you can access data up
to 10 times faster than with floppies.
Spend more time working and less
time waiting.

And it’s easy to use. Kamerman
Labs lets you boot directly off the hard

IBM is a registered trademark of International Business
Machines Corp.

Compaq is a trademark of Compaq Computer Corp.

Corona is a trademark of Corona Data Systems.

disk, just like the IBM XT.

A complete backup solution.

Backup of hard disk data is a critical
requirement in many microcomputer
applications, so Kamerman Labs
offers several reliable and cost-
effective backup devices that are fully
compatible with our hard disk units.

Lower prices than ever.

Because you deal directly with
Kamerman Labs, we offer you re¬
markably low prices. Finally, you can
realize the full benefits of hard disk

Leading Edge is a registered trademark of Leading Edge
Products, inc.

Eagle is a registered trademark of Eagle Computers.

TAVA is a trademark of TAVA Corporation.

technology without the excessive
costs.

Tested and formatted.

All Kamerman Labs systems have
been thoroughly tested and formatted
before delivery.

Full warranty and technical
support.

Kamerman Labs backs all its prod¬
ucts with a full one-year warranty on
both parts and labor. Plus you get
prompt technical support through a
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To order, call toll-free
800 - 522 - 2237 .

In Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska call

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All Kamerman Labs units come in either internal or external
configurations.

8054 S.W. Nimbus, Bldg. 6, Beaverton, Or 97005

Phone 503-626-6877

CIRCLE NO. 101 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Metrabyte's inexpensive
DASCON-1 moves
analog/digital numbers in
and out of the PC with
the greatest of ease.

O ne of the best features of a
small system is its ability to
analyze user data. The data,
entered at the keyboard,
can be listed, plotted, and used to
control external devices. With an
analog/digital I/O expansion board
like DASCON-1 from Metrabyte,
the data can be entered automati¬
cally in either analog or digital
form, and the above-mentioned
functions can be performed with
very little user intervention.

DASCON-1 is Metrabyte's solu¬
tion for getting analog or digital in¬
formation into and out of an IBM
PC. It allows high-precision data ac¬
quisition with a throughput of 16
channels per second.

Metrabyte's expansion board
not only has obvious industrial and
scientific applications but also has
many uses for the small-business or
home computer owner. Applications
can range from power-line monitor¬
ing to long-term temperature mea¬
surements for home heating man¬
agement. For example, by wiring a
solar cell to one A/D input and a
temperature probe to another, the

converter (12 bits plus a sign bit)
boasting a resolution of .0005 volts
while configured in the differential
mode; a clock/calendar, with bat¬
tery back-up, which provides timing
references at 1 second, 1 minute, or
1 hour for data acquisition and
which can be accessed to update the
date and time of the PC; 12 bits of
digital I/O (through two ports),
which are TTL-compatible,* internal
voltage and current references,- two
(R.T.D.) platinum resistance ther¬
mometer interfaces for temperature
readings between —200 deg. C and
+ 650 deg. C; two optional 12-bit
D/A outputs; optional instrumenta¬
tion amplifiers for two of the A/D
converters; a system manual; and
software programs. Photos 1, 2, and
3 show three of the boards that
make up DASCON-1.

The DASCON-1 manual is di¬
vided into nine well-written and de¬
tailed chapters. Chapter topics in¬
clude an introduction, a guide to in¬
stallation, how to program DAS¬
CON-1 (more than 20 pages of ex¬
amples and applications), how to set
and read the on-board clock, how to

Ra Ri chards Caiverter

F R O M A T O D

WILUAM H. MURRAY

user could investigate the effect of
incident sunlight on greenhouse
temperatures. Using the software
provided with DASCON-1, this data
can be saved and plotted at a later
date, or it can be plotted as it is re¬
ceived by the various inputs.

The DASCON-1 package con¬
tains a four-channel, dual-slope A/D

William H. Munay teaches computer science
at Broome Community College in
Binghamton, NY. He is a contributing editor.

use the graphics package, lineariza¬
tion of data, special applications, ac¬
cessories (to make life easier), and a
description of the calibration pro¬
gram and test information. Three
appendices describe the various con¬
nections to DASCON-1; input and
output data ranges, accuracy, and
precision; and user-serviceable parts.

Refer to table 1 for details on
DASCON-1's electrical and conver¬
sion specifications.

PC Tech Journal

Siiii

DASCON'l

Photo 1: A screw terminal
hoard that makes all analog and
digital inputs and outputs avail¬
able via miniature screw termi¬
nals. All 12 digital I/O lines are
monitored hy LEDs.

Experimenting with

DASCON-1

One of the easiest techniques for re¬
ceiving from or sending data to
DASCON-1 is to use the software
included with the board. Eleven dif¬
ferent modes allow the user great
flexibility in programming in the
BASIC language. Table 2 gives a
short description of each mode. The
various modes are accessed from
BASIC with a CALL statement and
parameters that are to be passed:

CALL DASCONl (MODE,

CHANNEL, DATA 0, DATA 1,

BASE ADDRESS)

As an example of how to access
data from channels 0 and 1 on the
A/D converter, consider the pro¬
gram in listing 1. Mode 0 is a free
scan mode that samples all four
A/D channels. Lines 30-80 set aside

part of the memory that is reserved
for BASIC in order to BLOAD DAS¬
CONl.BIN. Actually, this program
can reside outside of the BASIC seg¬
ment. Lines 90-150 initialize DAS¬
CON-1 for mode 0 operation. This
only needs to be done once per pro¬
gram, unless modes are changed.
Line 160 is the actual CALL state¬
ment to DASCON-1. Data for chan¬
nels 0 and 1 is returned to DIO (0)%
and DIO(I)% in terms of bits. In
other words, +/—4095 bits corre¬
spond to +/ —2.0475 volts. Lines
170-180 convert the bit readings to
voltages, and line 190 prints the
data to the screen.

Listing 2 is a modification of
the original program and will per¬
mit the user to receive data upon an
interrupt from the clock. In this
program, mode 3 is originally called
to start the interrupt process. Once

PC Tech Journal

Your IBM PC Or XT Graphics Are Only
As Good As What's Under The Hood.

Get Smooth Clean Performance With Graphix Plus 11™.
Single Board Support Of Both CoXox And Monochrome Display.

W hen it comes to color/graphics adapter boards, your
IBM Personal Computer—and you—deserve only the
best. That’s why Graphbc Plus II gives you
outstanding graphics... and a whole lot
more. With Graphix Plus II, you’ll get
50% faster, flicker-free scrolling over
IBM’s color/graphics board. And, the
Graphix Plus II is the only product on
the market which provides dual monitor
support for both RGB color and
monochrome graphics on a single board.

It gives you full screen (640 x 352)
monochrome graphics and high
resolution color graphics with the appropriate
software. When two monitors are used, Graphix
Plus II automatically shifts to the appropriate screen.

Luxury Items Are Standard Equipment

With the Graphix Plus II, you’ll be glad to know extra
conveniences come standard. For example, you get a
parallel printer port which allows you to hook up any IBM
compatible printer or SASI compatible hard disk controller.
Our ‘PC Accelerator’™ software is included which gives you

the use of two RAM disks and a print buffer. Plus, you
can access the screen RAM with absolutely no “snow” or
flashing. Graphbc Plus II also provides
—- true gray scale display on composite

video monitors, a light pen interface,
32K display RAM (text and graphics
modes), compatibility with Lotus
1-2-3™ and other popular software
packc^es. And much more. A battery
operated clock calendar is available as
an option.

Puts You In The Driver's Seat

Graphbc Plus II fits easily in any
expansion slot inside your PC. And when you power up,
you’ll see the same high-powered quality you’ve come to
expect from your machine. Incredibly smooth, versatile
performance. From start to finish.

Graphbc Plus II. So good, so reasonably priced, you might
say ...we’ve outclassed the competition. See your local
dealer for all the details. Or call or write STB Systems,

Inc., 601 North Glenville, Richardson, Texas 75081
(214)234-8750.

STB Systems, Inc.

IBM PC, XT are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
Lotus 1-2-3 is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation.

. 1.. . ■ r. i

CIRCLE NO. 199 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Expandins Microcomputing

PC Accelerator is a registered trademark of ResiCorp.

DASCON-1

Photo 2: An electromechanical
relay hoard that contains 8 relays
rated at 120 volts RMS at 3 amps
resistive load, for controlling
power loads.

called, the system will continue to
generate interrupts until reset (a call
to mode 4). A call to mode 6 (lines
170-200) reports the readings from
each interrupt. This program was
written to sample data on channel 0
once a second (the interrupt jumper
was set to one second) and print
data continuously to the screen.

Listing 3 is an extension of list¬
ing 2 that permits saving data in a
file on the B: drive called PDATA.
The manual is very detailed on how
file access can be made. The first
data entry (line 170) defines how

many data points are to
be recorded (the num¬
ber of data points
= 31 — 1 for this
example). Line 180
specifies a plotting
format that will be
described later.

To test DAS-
CON-Ts tempera¬
ture probe, 1 moni¬
tored the tempera¬
ture of a cup of cof¬
fee for 30 minutes.
Data were recorded at
1-minute intervals.

saved on a disk, and plotted using
the graphics software included with
DASCON-1. The temperature read¬
ings that were being reported using
DASCON-1 were found to track ac¬
curately when checked against a
mercury laboratory thermometer.
The program shown in listing 3 re¬
corded the actual data into the
PDATA file. Figure 1 shows a plot
of the data.

Several nice features about
DASCON-Ts graphics software
package deserve special mention: up
to 15 different data files can be plot¬
ted on the same graph; data entered
from the keyboard can be plotted;
by using a special program the X or
Y axis can be set to any size; data
can be plotted as they are received;
and data points can be plotted by
themselves or a line can be drawn
between successive points.

For another test of DASCON-Ts
capabilities, 1 used Titchener Hall,
one of the buildings at the commu¬
nity college where I teach, which
won the award for having the most
poorly designed air-conditioning sys¬
tem in the state of New York. Part
of the problem is that on sunny

Photo 3: A sohd-state I/O
hoard that uses up to 8 modules
of the OPTO‘22 type. The mod¬
ules are selected to meet the
user's specific I/O requirements.

PC Tech Journal

FORGET

EVERYTHING YOU
THOUGHT
YOU KNEW ABOUT
PROGRAMMING
IN BASIC

INTRODUCING

BetletBASIC

“It combines the best points of interpreted
BASIC, Pascal, Forth, & Assembler. "

...It’s thefirst piece ofsoftware Id spend my
own money on’.’

Susan Glinert-Cole
Technical Editor,

PC Tech Journal

Dramatically improve your
productivity with BetterBASICr

Introducing a new, breakthrough programming system called BetterBASIC : At last, the
structure and functionality of advanced languages such as Pascal and “C” have been
combined with the friendliness and ease of use of BASIC. BetterBASIC” will
dramatically increase the productivity of both new and experienced programmers.
BetterBASIC” is also a great Teaching Language.

Speed. Sieve of Erastosthenes Benchmark: Support of large memory (to 640K).

-BetterBASIC: 31.9 seconds. Built-in WINDOWS support!

—IBM PC BASIC: 191.1 seconds.

BetterBASIC' offers:

□ Extensibility (Make your own BASIC!!)

□ Program Block Structures.

□ User defined Procedures and Functions.

□ Local and Global Variables.

□ Shared Variables.

□ Recursion.

□ Argument type validation.

□ Optional arguments.

□ Arguments passed by-value or by¬
address.

□ Separately compiled program Modules.

□ Simple interface to Assembly Language
Procedures.

□ Support for OEM hardware through
extensibility.

□ Useful set of Data Types:

—Byte, Integer.

—Real (Variable precision BCD)

Ideal for business math.

—String (up to 32768 characters).
—Record Variables & Structures.

—N-dimensional Arrays of any type.
—Arrays of Arrays.

—Pointer (of any type).

General Information:

□ Interactive programming language based
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□ Syntax checked immediately on entry,
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□ Comprehensive 580 page manual.

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□ IBM PC, IBM PC/XT or compatible.

□ Built-in Screen Editor allows on-line
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□ 192K to 640K memory.

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□ Built-in Cross Reference Lister

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(No Editor, Graphics or Windows)

We are so sure you will like
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8087 MODULE $99.00

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- , I Til IBM PC. IBM PC/XT and PC/DOS are

Summit Software Technology mo

MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corp.

RQ BOX 99, BABSON PARK, WELLESLEY MA 02157

CIRCLE NO. 177 ON READER SERVICE CARD

DASCON-1

O ne of the easiest
techniques foT re¬
ceiving from or
sending data to DASCON-1
is to use the software in¬
cluded with the hoard.

[ —

Table 1: DASCON-1 Specifications

Power Consumption

"F 5 volt supply

450mA typical/600mA maximum

volt supply

8mA typical/15mA maximum

12 volt supply

70mA typical/lOOmA maximum

—12 volt supply

60mA typical/100mA maximum

Analog Input

Resolution

12 bits plus sign

Accuracy

.01% of reading +/— bit

Full Scale

“f /-2.0475 volts

Polarity

automatic

Zero

automatic

Overvoltage

continuous single channel to 120 volts R.M.S.

Configuration

differential

Common Mode

+/— 2 volt minimum

Comiuon Mode Reject

60 db min., 70 db typical

Input current

InA max at 25 deg. C

Input filter

Switchable on each channel 30 db atten.
at 60 Hz.

Temperature coefficient

Gain or full scale ~'25ppm/deg. C max

Type

Integrating dual slope

Conversion Rate

30 conversions/sec. min (4 channels)

Digital I/O

• Outp^ (low volt)

0.45 volt max at Isink = 1.7mA (1 standard

TTLload)

Output (high volt)

2.4 volts minimum at Isource = 200 uA

: Darlington drivig

4mA max, 1mA min with Rext —750 ohm

Input low voltage

0.8 volt max,—0.5 volt min

Input high voltage

2.0 volt min, 5 volt max

Input current

4-/— 10 uA max

Voltage and Current Sources

Voltage sources (2)

+/— 6.8 volt at 5 mA inax

Clock

Format

24 hour with leap year

Hold up time

2 months at 25 deg. C

Battery charge

24 hours max.

Stability

2 sec/month typical

: Output pulses

1024 Hz, 1 second, 1 minpte, 1 hour

days the greenhouse effect is respon¬
sible for increasing the temperature
on one side of the building and not
the other.

One possible solution would be
to monitor the amount of sunlight
on one side of the building and use
a zoned heating/cooling system to
start the air conditioning on that
side only. This would involve read¬
ing in an analog voltage from a solar
cell, processing the information, and
making a digital decision about
whether or not to turn on the air
conditioning system. DASCON-1

could be used to input the analog
voltage to the PC and output the
digital decision to a relay.

Listing 4 shows the modifica¬
tion to listing 1 that is required to
produce this interface. The solar
cell was wired to analog input chan¬
nel 0 and read with the CALL in
line 160. If the converted analog
voltage is over 500 (in binary form)
then line 170 will set up DIO%(0)
for a digital output of 1 for ON or 0
for OFF. Digital outputs can be
achieved by CALLing mode 9.

This program continuously

PC Tech Journal

BEUfSOR HAS CHANGED THE
WAY PROGRAMMERS WORK:

PASCAL

COMPUTER AIDED PROGRAMMING

The Bellesoft Entry System for Programs (ES/P) has changed
the way programmers will work in the future by putting computer
aided programming (CAP) at their fingertips.

What word-processing programs did for writing text, Bellesoft
has now done for generating programs: putting the computer to
work to create a whole new way of writing software.

Bellesoft’s ES/P speeds up software development by up to
50%, produces better programs and reduces debugging time. ES/P
improves programming in five significant ways:

1. On-Line Syntax Checking. ES/P is more than a very smart editor:
it automatically checks your program for correct syntax as you enter
or change it.

2m On-Line Formatting. ES/P automatically provides a correct and
consistent format, critical for program maintainability.

3a Context-Sensitive Abbreviations. ES/P builds program structures
or skeletons with a single keystroke, provides correct keywords and
punctuation, and saves up to half your typing time.

4a Program Editing. ES/P manipulates program structures correctly
with a single keystroke, allows you to delete or move statements
easily.

Sa On-Line Programming Help. ES/P provides menus of correct
program components and correct syntax as an aid to faster
programming.

ES/P is now becoming available to computer manufacturers for
inclusion in their software packages; to distributors and dealers for
resale; to universities and schools as an aid to teaching program¬
ming; and to programmers who want to cut their work in half
while writing better programs.

CIRCLE NO. 114 ON READER SERVICE CARD

To order, contact; Lifeboat Associates

1651 Third Avenue New York, NY 10028
(800) 847-7078

EELLES(S)FT

THE FIRST NAME IN PROGRAMMING PRODUCTIVITY

(206) 828-7282

DASCON-1

monitors the analog voltage and re¬
sponds with the digital decision. It
would be necessary to build in logic
controls to prevent the system from
cycling on and off as clouds passed
over the solar cell.

In the Titchener Hall case, only
one channel of digital output was
monitored because I only needed to
turn a relay on or off. Actually,
DASCON-1 provides 8 bits of digital
output at the PB output.

High-quality Addition

In DASCON-1, Metrabyte has pro¬
duced a high-quality, professionally
designed addition to the IBM PC
that will make data input and out¬
put easy. The careful design is evi¬
dent from the manual and software
programs that come in the package.
Details such as a rechargeable on¬
board clock battery, easy-to-reach
calibration pots, and sufficient cali¬
bration software make DASCON-1 a
pleasure to use. Imi^i

DASCON-1

Metrabyte Corporation
254 Tosca Drive
Stoughton, MA 02072
617-344-1990
$485

CIRCLE 489 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Table 2: Software Modes for BASIC Calls

Mode

Function

A/D free scan, data collected asynchronously
Conversion requested on single A/D channel, data transferred
when finished

Conversions requested on all channels, data transferred when
finished

Same as mode 2 but conversions are performed by interrupt

Disables interrupt modes 3 and 5

Same as mode 0 but data is collected on interrupt

Collects data from interrupt modes 3 and 5

Outputs data to a single D/A channel

Outputs data to both D/A channels

Outputs/inputs data to/from digital I/O ports

Enables/disables clock pulse output

Figare L- Plot of Data in test of DASCON-1 Temperatme Probe

Listing 1 LISTING1.BAS: Routine
To Access Data from Channels 0
and 1 on the A/D Converter

10 REM A/D 4 CHANNEL FREE SCAN (MODE 0)

20 REM PRINTING OUT CONTINUOUS DATA ON A/D CHANNEL 0 & 1
30 CLEAR,62463!

40 DEF SEG=0

50 SG=256*PEEK(&H511)+PEEK(&H510)

60 SG=62463!/16+SG

70 DEF SEG = SG

80 BLOAD -OASCONl.BIN-.O

90 MD%= 0

100 CHX=0

no DIM DI0%{32)

120 DIOX(0)=0:DIO%{1)=0
130 BASADR’t=768
140 DEF SEG = SG
150 OASCONl = 0

160 CALL OASCONl (MO'S.CH%,DI0%{0) ,DI0%( 1),BASA0R%)

170 ATOOO = .0005*DI0%(0)
180 ATOOl = .0005*0I0%(1)
210 PRINT ATOOO,ATOOl
220 GOTO 160

Listing 2 LISTING2.BAS; Modifi¬
cation of Original Program

10 REM A/D CHANNEL 0 MONITOR WITH INTERRUPT
20 CLEAR,62463!

30 DEF SEG=0

40 SG=256*PEEK(&H511)+PEEK(&H510)

50 SG=62463!/16+SG
60 DEF SEG = SG
70 BLOAD "OASCONl.BIN",0

80 OPEN "I",I1,"DASCON1.ADR":INPUT#1,BASADRX:CLOSE#1
90 DIM DI01i(8)

100 MDS=3
no CH%=2

PC Tech Journal

120 DI0%(0)=0:DI0S(l)=0

230 CALL DASCONl {MDX,CHX,0I0X(0),DI0X(1),BASADRX)

130 BASA0R%=768

240 MDX=6

140 DEF SEG = SG

250 CHX=0

150 OASCONl = 0

260 CALL DASCONl (MDX,CHX,DI0X(0),DI0X(1),BASADRX)

160 CALL OASCONl {MD%.CH%,0I0%(0).DIOSi1),BASADR%)

270 IF 0I0X(8)=0 GOTO 260

170 MD%=6

280 TEMPX=.2* *(DI0X{2))

180 CH%=0

290 LSET 04=MKS$(I)

190 CALL OASCONl {MD%,CH%,0I0%(0).010%(l),BASA0R%)

300 LSET N4»MKS$(TEMPX)

200 IF DI0%(8)=0 GOTO 170

310 PUT #1

210 PRINT I,OI0S(0)

320 PRINT I,TEMPX

220 GOTO 100

330 NEXT I

230 END

340 CLOSEIl

350 END

Listing 3 LISTING3.BAS: Extension
of Listing 2

Listing 4 LISTING4.BAS: Modifi¬
cation of Listing 1

10 REM A/D RECORDING CHANNEL 0 ON INTERRUPT TO DISKETTE

10 REM A/D 4 CHANNEL FREE SCAN (MODE 0)

20 REM SET TO RECORD 30 DATA POINTS, THEN QUIT

20 REM PRINTING OUT CONTINUOUS DATA ON A/D CHANNEL 0 4 1

30 REM SET TO SAVE DATA ON INTERRUPT ONLY!!!!!!!!

30 CLEAR,62463!

40 CLEAR,62463!

40 DEF SEG=0

50 DEF SEG=0

50 SG=256*PEEK(4H511)+PEEK(4H510)

60 SG=256*PEEK(4H511)+PEEK(&H510)

60 SG=62463!/16+SG

70 SG*62463!/16+SG

70 DEF SEG = SG

80 DEF SEG = SG

80 BLOAD "DASCONl.BIN",0

90 BLOAD "OASCONl.BIN",0

90 DIM DI0X(8)

100 DIM DI0t(8)

100 MDX= 0

no DI0X(0)=0:DI0X(1)=0

no CHX=0

120 BASA0RX=768

120 DI0X(0)=0:DI0X(1)»0

130 DEF SEG * SG

130 BASADRX’768

140 OASCONl * 0

140 DEF SEG = SG

150 OPEN "BrPDATA" AS #1 LEN=30

150 DASCONl = 0

160 FIELD #1,15 AS DX,15 AS H%

160 CALL DASCONl (MDX,CHX,DI0X(0),DI0X{1).BASADRX)

170 LSET D5=MKS$(31)

170 IF DI0X(0)>»500 THEN DI0X(0)*1 ELSE DI0X(0)=0

180 LSET N4=MKS$(1)

180 MDX=9

190 PUT #1

190 CHX*0

200 FOR I»1 TO 31

200 CALL OASCONl {MDX,CHX,DI0X(0),DI0X(1),BASADRX)

210 MDX-3

210 GOTO 100

220 CHX=2

Know Thy PC!

Are you writing programs in BASIC or Pascal? The popular Peeks
’n Pokes has a disk with 58 programs and a 38-page manual that
helps you get ‘underneath the covers’ of the PC. Learn how to use
PEEK, POKE, INP, OUT, and DOS/BIOS function calls to do
what you want, fast! Do you want to perform functions not
available from BASIC or Pascal? It’s all explained in the manual
and demonstrated in the sample programs. Source code included!

Peeks ’h Pokes shows you how to:

• Access the system’s configuration

• Unprotect BASIC programs

• Scroll part or all of the screen

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• Logically swap printers

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• Find more Peeks and Pokes

• And much more... for only $30.00

Want to know more? The Inside Tmckl is a collection of advanced
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The Inside Track! shows you how to:

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Data Base Decisions • 14 Bonnie Lane • Atlanta, GA 30328 • 404/256-3860

CIRCLE NO. 137 ON READER SERVICE CARD

September 1984

Hayes. Leading the way
with quality telecomputing
systems for the personal
computers that businesses
use most

When it comes to communicating-
computer to computer—Hayes says it
best. All you need is a Hayes Smart-
modem (it’s like a telephone for your
computer) and Smartcom II™ software,
to get you into aU the right places.

In no time at all, and with no assis¬
tance at all, you can aeate, send and
store files, and automatically log on to
information services. The communica¬
tion possibilities are endless!

Introducing our new Smartcom U.

More connection capabilities.

More convenience.

Smartcom II continues to maximize the
outstanding capabilities of Smartmodem.
And it still helps your computer and
Smartmodem work together, smoothly
and efibrdessly. But now Hayes goes
even further to streamline your commu¬
nications and optimize your connections.

Smartcom II software is currently
available for more than 12 personi
computers (\vith even more to come).
That means you can communicate,
Smartcom to Smartcom, with an IBM PC,
DEC Rainbow 100, HP 150, TI Profes¬
sional Computer* and others.

And that’s not all! Smartcom II also
emulates the DEC* VTIOO and VT52
terminals, now in widespread use in
many businesses. This feature lets your
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We stand on protocol.

In addition to the popular Hayes
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com II also includes the XMODEM
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"When I got this computer
I thought my problems were
over Then it dawned
on me I needed to talk
to the PC in sales and
the Tlin accounting I
What 1 needed was the
right modem and
software, so I went g
with the leader!”

services. By matching the protocol (or
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yours, Smartcom II can transmit informa-
tion error-free, regardless of interference
on the phone lines.

Your Haves telecomputing ^stem
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Smartcom II makes telecomputing
simnle, even ^vhen you're not there.

It allows your Smartmodem to receive
a message for you when you’re out,
and leave it on your disk or printer.

And you can tell Smartcom II to “save"
the messages you've aeated during
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Get your bands on the leader.

With an unsurpassed record of relia¬
bility, it's a small wonder Smartmodem
is such a smart buy! Smartmodem 300™

(the first of the Smartmodem series)
dials, answers and disconnects calls
automatically. Smartmodem 1200™ and
Smartmodem 1200B™ (it plugs into an
expansion slot inside an IBM PC or
compatible), provide high-speed, high-
performance communications for busi¬
nesses of all sizes.

And, when Smartmodem is purchased
with Smartcom II, you have the most

:onmi:

Everything we do at Hayes is designed
to make communications easier for you.
Feature-rich, direct connect modems.
Menu-driven software. Concise docu¬
mentation. And a customer service
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See your dealer right now for a hands-
on demonstration of Smartmodem and
our latest version of Smartcom II. From
the telecomputing leader. Hayes.

Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.

5923 Peachtree Industrial Blvd.,
Noraoss, Georgia 30092.404/441-1617.

CIRCLE NO. 158 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Smartcom II, Smartmodem 300, Smartmodem 1200 and Smartmodem 1200B are trademarks of Hayes Miaocomputer Products, Inc ‘Ifademarks of International Business Machines Corp., Digital
Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard and Ibxas Instruments. ©1984 Hayes Miaocomputer Products. Inc.

PC BRAND HAS UNKMABLE

C has rapidly become the language of
choice for serious software devel¬
opers. The language of maximum
portability across the spectrum of
today’s personal computers. The
language which will most rapidly adapt
to tomorrow’s machines. The companion
language to Unix™, the operating
system destined for predominance.
Major companies such as Microsoft and
MicroPro know this. They have switched
to C for their applications development.
How ready are you for the future?

PC Brand has the complete line of
today’s finest professional C tools. Not
just the finest compiler, but libraries for
graphics and screen design, overlay
linkers, and program editors acclaimed
as the best of their kind. It is a complete
workshop of craftsman’s tools which will
turn you into a C professional in a hurry;
capital equipment which will pay back
your investment many times over.

Take the time to read this advertise¬
ment. You are sure to see the competi¬
tive edge these products will deliver.

LfiinCEC

The Pieesainent 16-bit C Compil&c

Y OU can find a more economic way to
learn C, but if your interest is
program development. Lattice C™ is the
unparalleled choice. Byte said "the
Lattice C compiler produces remark¬
able code .. .outstanding in terms of
both execution speed and code com¬
pactness’’. After reviewing nine
compilers for the PC, the PC Tech Journal
unequivocally declared Lattice C "best
for software development... it compiles
fast and produces fast programs”.

Lattice C is a full implementation of
Kernighan and Ritchie, not a subset, and
even offers extra features such as nested
comments, 39-character variable names
and extra compile time checks for some
of C’s subtler errors. The compiler
comes with a full library of I/O routines
which implement under MS™-DOS most
of the Unix-compatible standards
described by Kernighan and Ritchie.

HALO

A Spectacular Graphics Extension to Lattice C

PMATE

The Programmer’s
Word Processor

P mate was designed for program¬
mers. We’ll wager that you cannot
find a programmer who has discovered
Pmate and moved on to something else.

Pmate is a full screen editor with ten
auxiliary buffers for squirreling away
pieces of text until needed. It uses single
key commands to move the cursor, or
text, or insert or delete, or rescue sev¬
eral thousand characters of deleted text.

It has a format mode for tab setting or
wraparound and shaping when it’s time
to write documentation. Pmate lets you
assign chains of commands or strings of
text to single keys: one keystroke could set
up the entire shell of a new C function,
for example.

Pmate has variables, if-then state¬
ments, loops. It calculates, and converts
decimal to hex to binary and back. You
can write compact programs (called
"macros") to delete comments, for exam¬
ple, or check syntax, or process long
sequences of commands. Macros can al¬
phabetize lists, do row and column math,
perform a series of operations on multi¬
ple files, even summon other macros.

Put another way, Pmate is a text editor
with its own built-in interpretive lan¬
guage. A language you can use to com¬
pletely customize this text editor to your
fancy. Possibly the most artful, ingenious
program you have ever seen.

Product Code: S0600 Our Price:

Suggested Retail: $225.00 * 175.00

H alo™ will astound you. It provides a
complete library of graphic func¬
tions which can be linked with your Lat¬
tice programs to create full-color charts,
graphs, simulations, even animation.

Over 100 commands-are at your
disposal, including plot, line, arc, box,
circle, plus single commands to produce
bar graphs and pie charts. Pattern-fill
and dithering commands give your
graphics impressive texture and color
mixes, rubber-banding draws shapes for
interactive users, area moves produce
animation, fill and flood commands paint
areas. The newest version allows you to
define your own world coordinate
scheme, divide the screen into
"viewports" (windows), and scale
graphic figures automatically.

It’s a long list of capabilities which
make for an extraordinarily powerful
product. In fact. Halo is so good that
manufacturers of graphics boards and
systems are adopting it as a standard
graphics language. So it can bridge your
application to other systems. CAD-CAM
developers, especially, have embraced
its device-independent approach for
maximal portability.

Halo is a dazzling demonstration of
why C has become the language of
choice among programming profes¬
sionals: its function library architecture
means you can tremendously enhance
your firepower by acquiring libraries of
software like Halo with dramatic
economy of time and money.

Requires IBM monochrome or color
graphics card or equivalents.

Product Code: S0300 Our Price:

Suggested Price: $200.00 * 125.00

Lattice C runs on virtually any com¬
puter using an 8086 or 8088 microproces¬
sor, and we carry two versions for either
PC-DOS™ or CP/M-86™. Create your
source files with any word processor or
text editor like Edlin or our Pmate™ and
Lattice C will compile them into Intel
8086 object module format ready for
linking with other modules by linkers
such as DOS’ Link or our Plink86™.

Lattice C offers a choice of four mem¬
ory models which allow the program
designer to choose the right combination
of efficiency and size for an application:
a range between 64K and a full mega¬
byte for program and data area size.

The documentation, which Byte says
"sets such a high standard of excellence
that others don’t even come close",
features sample source programs and
covers the interface to assembly
language and machine dependencies.

C’s structured approach encourages
development of tight, fail-safe functions
which can be counted on to return
reliable results every time. Local
variables unknown outside of functions
to safeguard against collision. Extremely
powerful nested expressions which
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HGH-THll

MIMKW

Ten communications packages that allow the
IBM PC to emulate popular terminals

M y family and I recently re¬
turned home from a week-
long visit in Florida at the 'Temple
of Tall Tales and Technology." My
daughter, who is slightly more than
a year old, has a whole new percep¬
tion of reality. To her, Tm sure, a
typical afternoon now includes leap¬
ing through hyperspace to Mars,
trying to separate a world-famous
rodent from his nose, and dancing
with an overgrown duck (Donald's
50 years old this year). In cohtrast.

her ordinary life at home will seem
like sensory deprivation.

I was intrigued by the myriad
impersonators and impostors we saw
and heard: Audio-Animatrons, pup¬
pets, fiberglass models, and people
decked out in animal suits, all pre¬
tending to be something they're not.
This article examines some imper¬
sonators in the microcomputer

Augie Hansen is a programmer for a major
telecommunications company. He wrote
Chrome Ranger, a game for the IBM PC.

Mimicry

world: communications packages
that include terminal emulation
among their capabilities.

Recently Tve been calling such
packages by a new name, which
was an unwitting creation of Carole
Autenzio, PC Tech Journal's edito¬
rial assistant. She got tired of saying
"'terminal emulators" during our
frequent conversations and subcon¬
sciously shortened the phrase to
"termulators"; I've been using that
marvelous contraction ever since.

Each of these "termulators" can
make the IBM PC masquerade as a

Relay. In addition, I've included
information about a free program
called SIMTERM that also does ter¬
minal emulation and is supplied
with complete Pascal and assembly
language source code.

I selected these terminal emula¬
tors for review because they mimic
one or more of the widely used
video terminals on the market.

Most of the communications pro¬
grams now on the market claim to
emulate a "dumb" terminal, defined
a$ a terminal that sends everything
typed on the keyboard to the re-

Table 1: Summary of Terminal Emulations

EMULATED TERMINAL TYPE

PROGRAM NAME

LSI ADM3a

ADDS Regent

Hazeltine Esprit

IBM 3101

•H

DEC VT100/VT52

TI 940

Custom

Communique

Crosstalk XVI

direct.connect

IBM 3101 Emulation

The Impersonator

OmnitermZ

PC/InterComm

SIMTERM

SmarTerm 100

Relay

terminal of at least one well-known
model. Some can do as many as six
impersonations, which qualifies
them for the terminal emulator
equivalent of the Rich Little act-
alike award. One package even calls
itself the Impersonator.

The other programs reviewed
are Omniterm2, PC/InterComm,
direct.connect. Crosstalk XVI,
SmarTerm 100, Communique, the
IBM 3101 Emulation Program, and

mote computer and dumps every¬
thing received to the console. This
article examines emulations that are
considerably more sophisticated,
giving the user control over screen
displays and possessing the ability to
interpret keyboard commands and
special functions.

Table 1 shows at a glance
which terminals each of the tested
programs claims to emulate. I exam¬
ine each program's emulation capa¬

bilities and compare them to the
real McCoys. Most of them do a de¬
cent job; some are superb.

Types of Terminals

Like people, terminals are not all
created equal in appearance, intelli¬
gence, or station in life. The diver¬
sity is astounding. Broadly speaking,
there are dumb terminals and intelli¬
gent terminals. Some manufacturers
use the term smart to mean a me¬

dium level of intelligence, brighter
than dumb but not as bright as in¬
telligent. Others use smart and intel¬
ligent synonomously.

Dumb Terminals. It was not
too many years ago that dumb
terminals were not considered so
dumb—they were the only game in
town. In comparison to many termi¬
nals today, however, a typical dumb
terminal can do very few things. In
addition to displaying the next re¬
ceived character at the current cur¬
sor or head position, most dumb ter¬
minals can interpret a few ASCII
control characters called format ef¬
fectors to do backspace, form feed,
line feed, tab, and other formatting

PC Tech Journal

operations typical of simple charac¬
ter-by-character hard-copy printers.

Many of today's video terminals
are essentially dumb terminals with
cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) instead of
print heads and paper. These are

often called glass TTYs in honor of
their close operational resemblance
to older printing Teletype ma¬
chines. (The term TTY is taking on
new meaning these days—Teletype
is making some intelligent video
terminals that don't look and act at
all like their clanky ancestors.)
Smart and Intelligent
Terminals. Generally speaking,
an intelligent terminal is one that
has local memory, some processing
power, and peripheral interfaces to
permit it to do tasks normally done
by a host computer.

Many terminals use control (es¬
cape) sequences to set and report the
cursor position, set video attributes,
insert and delete characters or lines,
clear the screen, and protect data-
entry fields. By themselves, in my
view, these editing capabilities do
not qualify the terminal to be con¬
sidered smart or intelligent.

Of course, that's a debatable
stand. There is really no consensus
on what separates the morons from
the merit scholars among terminals.

I conducted an informal poll of
about 30 programmers, hardware
designers, and marketers. Most
agreed that an ADM3a is a dumb
terminal. Beyond that, there was lit¬
tle agreement on anything.

Try this as a starting point for
further discussion. A smart or intel¬
ligent terminal earns its higher IQ
rating based upon how well it does
the following tasks (in addition to
editing): manipulating data,* range¬
checking and validation; blocking,
compressing, and storing data,- calcu¬
lating; searching; communicating,
including transferring files; print¬
ing; and more. An intelligent termi¬
nal is, in essence, a special-purpose
computer system.

The bibliography cites some
documents that try to define what
an intelligent terminal is, with
varying degrees of success. My as-

sertion above is most in line with
the description given in Intelligent
Terminals: Functions, Specifications,
and Applications (Bernstein and
Kashar, 1978).

Terminal Emulation

The ability to emulate terminals is
important when the user is commu¬
nicating with hosts that run full¬
screen editors, spread-sheets, and
other programs that require tight
control over what goes where on
the screen. Some dumb terminals
are marginally useful for such tasks
but put a tremendous burden on the
host computer. Others—those that
lack cursor addressing—are vir¬
tually useless for such purposes.

Giving the terminal some
"brains" solves some of the prob¬
lems. It is of little value, however,
to add intelligence to a terminal if

the host computer doesn't know
how to interact with it. Many mini¬
computer and mainframe operating
systems keep a database of terminal
capabilities, so that if the user is
running a full-screen editor applica¬
tion, and the host knows he is using
a VTIOO terminal, the host can in¬
terpret special keyboard functions
and can manage the screen effec¬
tively. In other situations, the editor
may be in the terminal's memory,
thus completely off-loading from
the host any interactions during the
editing session.

The following material is a
summary of my tests and evalua¬
tions of terminal emulation pro¬
grams for the IBM PC that try to
fool a host computer into thinking
the communicating machine is one
of the popular terminals listed.

VTlOO-series Emulations

Digital Equipment Corporation has
sold large numbers of VTIOO termi¬
nals throughout the world. This ter¬
minal has two things going for it: it
incorporates a VT52 mode so that
the large base of existing software

for that popular terminal can be run
without change; and it was the first
to conform, in a manner of speak¬
ing, to the ANSI standards for ter¬
minal devices. For a long time, it
was one of only a few terminal
types to do so. (See the sidebar on
ANSI standards for terminals.)

The VTIOO implements only a
subset of the ANSI standard func-

SEPTEMBER 1984

Table 2: Comparison of VTIOO Emulators and VTIOO Terminal

Mimicry

tions, and it adds many '"DEC Pri¬
vate" functions that are not part of
the standards. It is, however, one of
the most popular terminals ever pro¬
duced, so emulating it is sensible.

Table 2 is a summary of VTIOO
emulators and the features each sup¬
ports. Virtually all of the programs
tested that have a VTIOO emulation
incorporate a VT52 mode. The
SmarTerm 100 and PC/InterComm
programs also emulate the VTIOO
set-up operations. None of the pro¬
grams tested claims to do the
double-high and double-wide line
displays, but PC/InterComm simu¬
lates them by spacing displayed
lines horizontally and vertically.
Omniterm2, PC/InterComm, Com¬
munique, and SmarTerm 100 add
the editing features of the VT102 or
VT132 terminal—insert/delete
character and line, and replace
(overstrike) mode—that are missing
from the basic VTIOO.

All of the packages tested fail to
perform some VTIOO functions as a
result of the hardware limitations of
the IBM PC. For example, none of
them permits separate transmit and
receive speeds because the IBM
asynchronous communications card
won't support that. None supports
the graphics mode of the VT52.

Such features as the RS-232 port
status report are not applicable.

Each of these products uses
color on displays that support it.
PC/InterComm allows the user to
switch between display adapters
during execution. All the others use
the monitor that was the default at
the time the program was loaded.
SmarTerm 100 will handle the 132-
column screen with a Supervision
display adapter board made by Cali¬
fornia Computer Systems.

Crosstalk XVI and PC/Inter¬
Comm implement the reverse video
screen mode of operation perfectly.
SmarTerm handles the mode accept¬
ably from the set-up form but not
when under control of the host
computer. It is necessary for a dear-
screen command to be sent to make

EMULATOR PROGRAM

VT 100

TERMINAL

FEATURES

Crosstalk XVI

Impersonator

Communique

OmnitermI

PC/InterComm

SmarTerm 100

Relay

Terminal Setup Screen Forms

Yes

Cursor Type UL/Block Select

Yes

Response to "What Are You?"^

NOP

AVO

-f

GPO

PF1-PF4 Keys Simulated

Yes

80/132 Columns

[2]

VT52 Emulation

Yes

ANSI/VT52 Selection

Yes

Scrolling Region

Yes

Smooth Scroll

Yes

Cursor Keys on:

Numeric Keypad

Yes

[3]

Yes

Function Keys

Yes

Yes

Reverse-screen Mode

Yes

Margin Bell ON/OFF Select

Yes

Wraparound ON/OFF

Yes

Settable Tabs

Yes

VT102/132 Extensions

Yes

Select Graphic Rendition (SGR)

Yes

Screen Alignment Test

Yes

LED Display

Yes

BREAK Signal Key Provided

Yes

[Setup form]

["slow scroll"]

[Setup form]

(Some combinations
are not possible.)

1 NOP-No Options; AVO-Adv. Video Option; GPO-Graphics Processor
Option.

2 Requires Supervision display adapter card.

3 <Shift> -h <arrow> required to move cursor.

PC Tech Journal

the mode take effect, and doing that
makes the user lose the context of
the work in progress.

The other programs do not
emulate the reverse-video screen,
although they can be tricked into it
if the user sends the SGR 7 mode
command (Select Graphic Rendi¬
tion-reverse video) and a dear-
screen command. I think the re-
verse-video screen looks garish, but
a lot of people seem to like it.

All of the programs send the
DEC sequences assigned to the PFl-
PF4 function keys, using the IBM
PC function keys F1-F4 to do so.

The remaining function keys (F5-
FIO) and their Shift-, Alt-, and Ctrl-
key alter egos are used for cursor
positioning and switching contexts
within the communications pro¬
gram. They usually may be assigned
to any purposes the user desires, as
long as that purpose is within the
capabilities of the hardware. Only
Relay is an exception in this regard.
It uses the Alt-Fl through Alt-F4
sequences to simulate the VTlOO's
PF1-PF4 keys (because F1-F4 are per¬
manently assigned to other tasks).

IBM 3101 Emulations

In a dramatic departure from the
IBM world of computer communi¬
cations, in which EBCDIC reigns
supreme, IBM introduced the 3101
ASCII terminal. (The PC is also an
ASCII-oriented device.) The 3101 is
a lovely terminal in many ways. It
has a fine ''Selectric-style" key¬
board, a screen that is easy on the
eyes, and some nice terminal fea¬
tures—all in all an attractive pack¬
age. Most of the terminal options
are chosen through set-up switches
that are accessible to the user.

IBM sells a 3101 emulation
package for the PC and XT that
comes as close to the real thing as
one could expect given the hard¬
ware differences between the ma¬
chines. It is obviously the reference
program for this comparison.

None of the 3101 emulators
allows the use of transparent and

local modes. The IBM program
modifies some functions, such as Set
Control, to exclude control-code bits
that are not necessary. The Set Con¬
trol function is not necessary by the
other programs because they do not
implement block mode. None of the
programs supports any foreign-
language features.

Table 3 is a summary of the
IBM 3101 emulators tested. Except
for the IBM program, which imple¬
ments some of the block mode fea¬
tures, the programs are nearly the
same from an operational perspec¬
tive. The Impersonator is much the
easiest of these programs to use.

TeleVideo 910/920 series
Emulations

TeleVideo has been producing
smart terminals for a number of
years and has recently moved into

Z n its efforts to keep the
cost low, TeleVideo
made one design deci¬
sion 1 wish it hadn't: the
company used a video
memory that is only 1,920
hytes small and a brain¬
damaged video controller.

the microcomputer field as well.
The company's terminals have al¬
ways been packed with many fea¬
tures for the money. As a user of
terminals, I appreciate the pains tak¬
en by TeleVideo to provide a high
degree of "functionality," especially
in the area of video attributes and
control capabilities.

In its efforts to keep the cost
low, TeleVideo made one design de¬
cision I wish it hadn't: the company
used a video memory that is only
1,920 bytes small and a brain-dam-
aged video controller. That memory
size contrasts poorly with the 4K

bytes in the PC's display memory
for one screenful of characters and
attributes. Each even byte in the
PC's display memory holds a charac¬
ter code (one of 265) and each odd
byte holds the video attribute of its
corresponding character.

To control the video attributes
on its screens, TeleVideo uses what
have been dubbed "magic cookies"
in display memory. No, these are
not brownies laced with a con¬
trolled substance; they are bytes of
display memory that hold special
codes to set video attributes. These
attributes have effect from the time
they are first set until they are
cleared. The bytes used for this are
effectively stolen from the bytes
otherwise used to store displayable
characters. To work with display
memories that use "magic cookies,"
programmers must go through all
kinds of gyrations to write code that
can manage screen displays cor¬
rectly. Programs that emulate Tele¬
Video terminals need to account for
this difference in display memory
implementation.

An example of the differences
that must be considered in writing
an emulation program is the way
the functions that clear to the end
of a line are implemented. The
TeleVideo terminal allows two
methods: the erased characters can
be converted either to spaces or to
nulls. The emulations treat both
methods identically and just pad the
memory buffer with spaces in the
prevailing attribute.

The Impersonator and Crosstalk
XVI provide TVI910/920-series
emulations. Again, Crosstalk pro¬
vides a prepackaged set-up that can¬
not be modified. It combines the
features of the 910 and 920 termi¬
nals. The Impersonator implements
most of the features of the 912 ter¬
minal. For all the purposes I found
for using this terminal emulation,
the two programs are nearly identi¬
cal. On systems that have databases
of terminal capabilities, specify the
tvi912c entry—it seems to be op-

SEPTEMBER 1984

Mimicry

timum for both the Impersonator and Crosstalk XVI
when these programs are used with screen editors and
similarly demanding applications programs. Be sure to
specify the “c" suffix, because early TeleVideo termi¬
nals were incredibly slow at certain operations, such as
scrolling the screen up, and they required lots of pad¬
ding to accommodate their sluggishness.

Neither the Impersonator nor Crosstalk XVI
implements the block and protect mode operations
available with the 910/920 series. Also, neither specifi¬
cally sets up the function keys of the 920 terminal.
Crosstalk allows the user to customize the IBM func¬
tion keys; the Impersonator avoids the problem by sim¬
ply not claiming to emulate a 920. Special editing, func¬
tion, and transmission keys are primarily what distin¬
guish the 920 from the 912.

Lear Seigler ADM3a Emulations

The LSI ADM3a terminals are a bit like pennies.
They're found everywhere, and they continue to serve
even when old and tarnished. About five years ago I
walked into a computer facility that had just received
about a hundred of these light-blue-encased, one-eyed
monsters; they were arrayed, rank and file, like a small
army awaiting orders. I felt lucky to escape unscathed
and have had a hard time feeling comfortable using one
of them ever since that encounter. Of course, they are
very dumb and rather slow, which may also play a part
in causing me to feel as I do. Despite these drawbacks,
the ADM3a has been a workhorse in the computer in¬
dustry for years, and many programs will run on these
terminals easily.

Three of the programs reviewed include an
ADM3a emulation. The direct.connect program and
SIMTERM, at least in their current versions, emulate
nothing else. The Impersonator also pays homage to
this electronics beast of burden burden.

There is nothing particularly tricky about the LSI
ADM3a terminal or any of its emulators. Aside from al¬
lowing the user to clear the screen, position the cursor,
and perform a few other functions, the terminal basical¬
ly behaves just as a printing terminal does, except that
it uses a CRT screen instead of paper. All of the emula¬
tions worked as they should while running editors and
other programs that required, as a minimum, cursor
positioning.

Miscellaneous Emulations

Time did not permit testing of the remaining three
emulations. The creators of the Impersonator state that
it can pretend to be a Hazeltine Esprit, a rather nice
video terminal that is finding its way into computer fa¬
cilities and offices. Crosstalk, in addition to the emula¬
tions already described, is supposed to be able to func¬
tion as an ADDS Viewpoint and as a TI 940 terminal.

Table 3: Comparison of IBM 3101 Terminal
and Emulators

EMULATOR PROGRAM

3101 TERMINAL
FEATURES

Crosstalk XVI (Model 10)

IBM 3101 Emul. Pgm. (Model 20)

The Impersonator (Model 10)

Communique (Model 10)

Set Tab

Yes

Clear Tab

Yes

Back Tab [B]

—

Yes

—

Start Field [B]

Yes

Read Cursor Address

Yes

Read Buffer [B]

Yes

Set Control

Yes

Cursor Motion Control

Yes

[*]

Yes

Codes

Write Send Mark [20]

—

[!]

—

Cursor Home

Yes

Erase to EOF/EOL

Yes

Erase to EOS

Yes

Erase Input

Yes

Clear All

Yes

Insert Line [B]

—

Yes

—

Delete Line [B]

Yes

Insert Char. [B]

—

Yes

—

Delete Char. [B]

[%]

Yes

Cancel [20]

[!]

Print Line [20]

[!]

Print Message [20]

—

[!]

—

Print Page [20]

—

Yes

Set Buffer Address

Yes

Set Cursor Address

Yes

Insert Cursor

Yes

Lock Keyboard

Yes

Unlock Keyboard

Yes

Function Keys (PF1-PF8)

Yes

Transparent Mode

Block/Char. Mode Select

—

Yes

—

Norm/Trans/Prgm Mode

Yes

Select

Erase Keys (4) Simulated

Yes

Cursor Motion Keys

Yes

Enabled

Local Mode Operation

[B] —> Block mode only

[20]^ Model 20 only

[*] —> Some bits always set or ignored

[!] —♦ Not supported

[%] —♦ Canadian French not supported

— —> Not applicable

PC Tech Journal

Custom Emulations

Two of the emulator programs—the
Impersonator and Omniterm2—will
permit users to extend their capabil¬
ities if they dare or are pressed hard
enough to try. These programs
make extensive use of input and
output filtering and translations to
do their emulations. Both emulators
make those capabilities available to
the user through the use of various
menus and work screens.

The concept is deceptively sim¬
ple: every key press sends a code
that can be passed through unmod¬
ified or captured and translated into
a local action or a sequence of codes
to be sent out. Similarly, a character
being received may be passed or
converted. Even patterns may be
captured and translated. With a pro¬
gramming language of decision
statements and actions, it is possible
to do many interesting emulations.

Of the two packages, the Imper¬
sonator is far more sophisticated in
the way it handles the preparation
of emulations and in the breadth of
its capabilities. More features are
also being added. Owners of the cur¬
rent version will be treated to a free
update that will speed up some op¬
erations and increase the flexibility
of the actions that can be taken,
making possible more block-mode
emulations and other extensions.

Figure 1 shows a work screen
from the Impersonator that exem¬
plifies the clean method used to dis¬
play and modify translation tables
and other configurable elements.

Users who decide to "roll their
own" emulations should be pre¬
pared to do much experimenting
and to pad their walls with some¬
thing soft; there are many subtle
interactions and "gotchas" lurking
about in terminals.

Conclusions

Besides the terminal-emulation
aspects, these programs also have
other general communications capa¬
bilities,- I did not, however test any
of these features. In each case, a full

set of capabilities—including file
transfers, local printing, and general
access to bulletin boards and infor¬
mation services—is promised.

On the whole, the quality of
the documentation provided ranges
from good to excellent. The manual
provided with the Impersonator is
complete and nicely produced, but
it needs better organization in some
areas and better coverage of the
emulations that are provided. The
direct.connect package has well-
written documentation that benefits
from tabbed section dividers. The
documents that accompany
PC/InterComm and IBM 3101 Emu¬
lation Program are the most thor¬
ough in describing what their pro¬
grams do. PC/Intercom's manual is
neat and well written, but the type
size may be a bit small for old eyes.

Communique is a new product,
and its lack of maturity shows
clearly when it is compared with
some older products. It has good
potential, particularly for use in a
UNIX environment in which the
extra tools provided with the pack¬
age aid in handling multiple file
transfers and other functions. Its
documentation is currently in a
comb-bound booklet that has the
look of UNIX documentation. It
measures SMz inches by 11 inches,
unlike albthe others, which come
in the familiar half-size format.

Only one of the programs
tested, SmarTerm 100, is copy pro¬
tected. All the others may be
backed up freely and placed on hard
disks. Persoft provides two complete
copies of the program diskette, and
each may be used once to transfer
needed files to a hard disk. If a reg¬
istered user needs to update or re¬
place a hard disk more than twice,
Persoft will describe how to do it. I
don't like to see software of this
type copy protected because of the
inconvenience it causes end users.
To its credit, however, Persoft has
been helpful on the phone and has
tried to minimize the adverse effects
of copy protection.

On the basis of VT 100-series
emulations alone. I'd choose either
PC/InterComm or SmarTerm 100.
For users who need a range of
general-purpose emulations and the
potential to expand to others essen¬
tially at will, the Impersonator
looks hard to beat.

For overall versatility and gen¬
eral use. Crosstalk and Omniterm2
are both strong contenders, but
don't rule out any of these pro¬
grams. Competition in the field of

Photo 1: The Impersonator
Displaying a Work Screen
Used to Set Up Translations.

terminal emulation is becoming so
fierce that it is hard to find a really
bad product. Of course, that situa¬
tion is good for you and me. li"'—I

References

Bernstein, George B., and Arnold S.
Kashar, Intelligent Terminals:
Functions, Specifications and Ap¬
plications, Q.E.D. Information
Sciences, Inc., 1978.

Guide to Intelligent Terminals,
AUERBACH, 1976.

September i984

Mimicry

Vital Statistics

Communique

Computerized Office Services, Inc.
313 North First Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
313^5-8778

Languages: C and Assembly Language
S195

CIRCLE 495 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Crosstalk XVI
Microstuf, Inc.

1845 The Exchange, Suite 140
Atlanta, GA 303S?

404-952-0267

Language: Assembly Language
$195

CIRCLE 499 ON READER SERVICE CARD

dnect.coimect
Direct.aid, Inc.

P.O. Box 4420
Boulder, CO 80306
303422W80

Languages: Microsoft Pascal and
Assembly Language
$95

CIRCLE 498 ON READER SERVICE CARD

IBM 3101 Emulation Program
IBM

Boca Raton, FV33432
305-998-2000

The Standards Issue

Given the utter chaos in the field of
computer terminal devices, it would
seem that the standards promulgated
by the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) have been forgotten.
For a long time, only a handful of
terminal devices conformed to the
standards, and then only loosely.
Most terminal manufacturers chose
to follow their own courses, hoping
that one or more of their product's
great features would attract more
buyers than the features of someone
else's terminal would.

The situation is improving,
though. Many of the terminals intro¬
duced in the last few years have ad¬
hered at least partially to the stan¬
dards—enough, at any rate, to allow
the manufacturers to call them
ANSI-compatible. That compatibility
is, however, largely an illusion.

What Standards?

There is a set of American National
Standards that attempts to bring
some order to a relatively chaotic
scene. It is the result of work done
by the X3 Committee, more formally
known as the American National
Standards Committee on Computers

Languages: IBM Pascal and Assembly
Language
$140

CIRCLE 497 ON READER SERVICE CARD

The Impersonator
Direct.aid, Inc.

P.O. Box 4420
Boulder, CO 80306
303442-8080

Languages: Microsoft Pascal and
Assembly Language
$195

CIRCLE 496 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Oinniterm2

Lindbergh Systems, Inc.

49 Beechmont Street
Worcester, MA 01609
627-852-0233
Language: MMSFORTH
$245

CIRCLE 495 ON READER SERVICE CARD

PC/InterComm
Mark of the Unicorn, Inc.

222 Third Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
617^576-2760
Languages: Lattice C and
Assembly Language
$99

CIRCLE 494 ON READER SERVICE CARD

and Information Processing, X3.

Three of the standards applicable to
this discussion are X3.4, X3.41, and
X3.64. These deal primarily with
codes and character sets, formatting,
and basic control functions. Others
that apply specifically to data link
control issues are also available.

The standards are voluntary and
have about the same force as resolu¬
tions of the United Nations General
Assembly—few people pay attention
to them, but we all sleep a little bet¬
ter at night knowing someone cares.
It is fortunate that the standards,
e^ecially X3.4, have had greater
effect on the communications indus¬
try than most UN resolutions have
had on governments,

ANSI X3.4-1977. This document
defines the 7-bit character representa¬
tions for control and graphic charac¬
ters that we so blithely refer to as
ASCII. The control characters are
nondisplay items that control the
communication process and format
the printing or displaying of informa¬
tion. The latter are called "format
effectors" and include horizontal and
vertical tabs, carriage return and line¬
feed (or newline), form feed, etc. Of

Relay

VM Personal Computing
60 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10165
212-686-1450

Language: Assembly Language
$149

CIRCLE 491 ON READER SERVICE CARD

SmarTerm 100
Persoft, Inc.

2740 Ski Lane
Madison, WI53713
608-273-6000

Languages: Compiled BASIC and
Assembly Language
$150

CIRCLE 493 ON READER SERVICE CARD

SIMTERM
Jim Holtman
5 Dogwood Trail
Randolph, NJ 07869
Languages: IBM Pascal and Jissembly
Language

Free (send diskette and mailer with
adequate return postage)

CIRCLE 492 ON READER SERVICE CARD

the three documents discussed here,
this is the most useful and the most
respected by the industry.

The 1977 standard (denoted by
the ''-1977" appended to the base
number) is an updated version of the
original 1968 standard. Action must
be taken within five years of the
publication date of a standard to reaf¬
firm that standard, revise it, or scrap
it, so the documents should not be¬
come too outdated.

ANSI X3.41-1974. It didn't take
the people who wrote the standards
long to realize that the number of
unique codes that can be expressed
directly by a 7-bit code is too small
to handle the wide variety of control
and graphic requirements of com¬
puter users. Something had to be
done, and it was. In fact, it was antic¬
ipated in the definition of ASCII
codes. Four codes were assigned a
special purpose: code extension.

This document describes 7-bit
code extension techniques, clever
ways to make a 7-bit quantity have
more meaning than the normal 128
permutations of its bit values. The
techniques center on the use of four
special-purpose codes. The Shift In

PC Tech Journal

(SI) and Shift Out (SO) codes are used
to switch between alternate graphic
character sets. The Escape (ESC) con¬
trol code prefixes sequences of a lim¬
ited number of characters to provide
a wide range of additional control
codes. The Data Link Escaj^ (DLE)
code is similar to ESC, but it provides
a means of creating supplementary
data transmission control functions.

X3.41 does not define precisely
what specific control sequences
mean. Instead, it reaffirms the origi¬
nal ASCII control and graphic codes,
labeling the sets CO and GO respec¬
tively, and gives some general guide¬
lines on implementing alternate sets
of control codes and graphic codes
(Cl and Gl), as well as multiple-byte
GO sets if more than 94 characters
are needed. This document also de¬
fines how to switch between the var¬
ious character sets and describes
methods of creating escape sequences
of 2, 3, and n characters.

The document also deals with 8-
bit codes and ways of applying a

''family concept" to the definition of
codes for compatibility with the 7-bit
codes and for doing code extensions
in the 8-bit framework. X3.28-1971
defines the purpose and use of nine
data link control characters plus the
DLE character, which is used in con¬
structing additional sequences of data
link control codes.

ANSI X3.^4-1979. This document
attempts to define escape sequences
for specific purposes, such as posi¬
tioning a cursor, clearing the screen
of a display terminal, and many
others. It must be one of the most
confusing sets of instructions ever de¬
veloped. It is not possible simply to
look up a function in a table to see
what its escape sequence should be.
Instead, to piece together a control
sequence, it is necessary to follow a
set of "rules" that is strikingly simi¬
lar to the instructions in some adven¬
ture games. This provides plentiful
opportunities for confusion and er¬
ror, and many terminal designers
have made errors of interpretation.

The No-cost Alternative

When the range of commercial com¬
munications programs for the IBM
PC could be counted on two fingers,
Jim Holtman and his son Eric wrote
their own in Pascal. They called it
SIMTERM, a euphemistic concatena¬
tion of terminal simulator, It was the
Holtmans' original intention that
SIMTERM be used mainly in the
UNIX environment, and because of
that, its user interface was strongly
biased toward programmers.

The original program had two
remarkable matures in addition to its
generally useful operational features:
it was free, and it was supplied with
full Pascal and assembly language
source code in addition to the execut¬
able programs. The user was not
even requested to send money to the
authors if he liked and used the pro¬
gram. There was, however, one
catch—the user had to provide the
needed RS232INT.BAS file (or, for
ACS version 2.0, RS232INT.EXE.

As time passed, features were
added, bugs fixed, and the needs of
other users were accommodated. The
latest version includes a lot of nice
enhancements, including XMODEM
protocol file transfers, support for
bulletin board users, command script
files, remote access and control, and
Ventel auto-dial modem support. It's
still free, and it now includes its own
machine language interface module,
so the user no longer has to be a reg¬
istered owner of IBM's ACS package
to use SIMTERM legally.

SIMTERM is comparable to
many commercial programs, and it

has some nifty features. Here is an
abbreviated list of the program's
main features.

• Fully configurable (from com¬
mand line)

• Log session to printer and/or
disk

• XON/XOFF flow control
(may be disabled)

• Programmable function keys
(from key definition file)

• Supports multiple COM ports
and IRQ levels

• Direct connect option for
hard-wired lines

• Command script files

• Remote access and control op¬
eration

• Uses all available memory as
a scrollable session buffer

• Has many options for file pro¬
cessing and printing

• Upioad/download (three vari¬
eties, including XMODEM)

• On-line help (context-depen¬
dent help frames)

• Exit to DOS with hang-up and
no-hang-up options

• Hang up line without exiting
to DOS

• Local line editing and
retransmission

• Vental auto-dial modem
support

• Character-graphics mode op¬
tion (bit 8 enabled)

• Terminal emulation (LSI
ADM3a)

I have used the program with Hayes
external and built-in modems, the
U.S. Robotics Password modem, and

X3.64 is a "living" document in
that it describes procedures for a re¬
gistry of escape sequences and their
meanings, except for what are con¬
sidered "private" escape sequences.
The registration of sequences tries to
guarantee that items that should be
used identically by everyone are in
fact used in that way, and that those
that must be unique are unique.

Information, Please

Information about the status of ANSI
standards and copies of individual
standards documents may be ob¬
tained by writing or calling the
American National Standards Insti¬
tute, 1430 Broadway, New York, NY
10018, 212-354-3300. The Institute
also provides information about stan¬
dards published by the International
Organization for Standardization
(ISO). A catalog costs $10; individual
documents vary in price.

-AH

standard 212A- and 103-compatible
modems wihout difficulty. The user
will have to flip a few switches on
some of the modems; information
about this is provided in a 12-page
"readme" file on the distribution
disk. Because the Holtmans have the
Ventel modem, they designed for it
rather than the Hayes. If they re¬
ceive enough requests for Hayes sup¬
port, it will be added. They got my
request already.

There is a growing interest in
SIMTERM, especially in the univer¬
sity community. Many universities
run the UNIX operating system on
their main computers and are setting
up PC labs, using IBMs and work-
alikes in addition to other equip¬
ment. SIMTERM gives the schools a
painless way to connect the PCs to
the main computers. A public do¬
main program called UMODEM can
handle the UNIX end of XMODEM
file transfers, so all the pieces are
available at little or no cost.

If you want a copy of SIM¬
TERM, first try a friend or computer
club that may already have the pro¬
gram. If that doesn't work, send a
formatted diskette in a suitable
mailer with return postage tO:

Jim Holtman
35 Dogwood Trail
Randolph, NJ 07869
Jim and Eric get nothing from
this except the satisfaction of know¬
ing others use and enjoy their pro¬
gram. If you don't really need it,
please don't waste their time.

-AH

September i984

ILLUSTRATION ‘GARY CICCAKFl

OMNIUM

GATHERUM

if *

Corvus Systems' Omninet can support a miscellaneous collection of
computers in the same network.

C orvus Systems' Omninet is the grand old man of microcomputer net¬
works. It began its electronic life by connecting Apple II and TRS-80
computers and has since evolved into the network community's equiva¬
lent of the intergalactically renowned (at least to readers of Douglas Adams'
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) babblefish.

Omninet is designed to interconnect a variety of microcomputers, all of
which can be running under different operating systems. When each computer
is provided with network hardware and drivers appropriate to the particular
machine, they are all able to share a central disk server, mass storage devices,
printers and other peripherals. PC Tech Journal has a Johnny One-Note variety
• of microcomputers available for testing, and therefore we were able to evaluate
network performance only on IBM PCs.

Susan Glinert-Cole and Julie Anderson

CORVUS

The operating systems that are
presently supported for the PC are
DOS 1.1, 2.0, and 2.1. Although
Omninet is written in UCSD Pascal,
no drivers are provided for either
the UCSD p-System or any version
of CP/M. Minimum requirements
for a user station are one disk drive
and 64K of memory. The station
used to generate the network system
and set up the server software needs
128K and one disk drive. Omninet
uses stand-alone disk servers for
sharing mass storage, and to imple¬
ment spooling it uses either a sepa¬
rate print server, which can service
one parallel and two serial devices,
or an IBM PC with a printer.

Omninet is not inexpensive.

The server ranges in price from
$1,995 for a 5-megabyte disk to
$4,995 for a 45-megabyte disk. Each
station requires a transporter card
that costs $495. Print spooling and
back-up facilities run the price up
even more: the printer server is
$990 and the bank tape back-up
costs $2,195. Neither the trunk
cable nor the printer cable come
with the package.

The network is a CSMA system
and uses RS-422 twisted-pair wire in
a linear bus configuration for both
the trunk and drop cables. Connec¬
tions between the drop and main
cables are made by means of trans¬

ceivers that are housed in small
plastic boxes. The length of the
trunk cable cannot exceed 4,000
feet. Network throughput speed is
one megabaud per second.

All of the devices on the net¬
work-hard disks, print servers, and

computers—have individual trans¬
porter boards installed to handle
communications; each board is set
to a unique address. As many as 64

devices can be linked together into
an Omninet system. The network
uses no interrupt or DMA channels,-
it uses I/O ports 248h to 24Bh.

The Omninet package provides
the services of the four lower layers
of the ISO/OSI protocol. The upper
three layers are supplied by Corvus
for each machine. Corvus reserves
the word Omninet for the lower
four protocol layers only and uses
the designation Constellation II to
mean the higher-level network soft¬
ware. We will refer to the entire
system as Omninet, because that
name is generally more familiar to
the computer community.

All transporter boards are iden¬
tical in nature; no master network
controller is required. The trans¬
porter is responsible for generating
and receiving message acknowledg¬

ments, retransmitting messages in
the absence of acknowledgments,
and detecting duplicate messages.

File or Message Transfers

When the transporter has a packet
ready to send, it checks the trans¬

mission line for traffic. If the line is
idle, transmission proceeds. Other¬
wise a random delay count is gener¬
ated, after which transmission is

again attempted. The process is re¬
peated until the line is idle, or until
the number of retries exceeds the
limit set internally. Collision detec¬
tion is not required.

From the host's point of view,
the unit of transfer is a single mes¬
sage. To send a command to the
transporter, the host computer
formats a command vector in mem¬
ory and sends the address of that
vector to the transporter. The trans¬
porter converts the message into a
data packet by adding system infor¬
mation and then converts the pack¬
et to a synchronous serial bit stream
and sends it out over the network.
Currently, Omninet implements
seven commands (see table 1).

Only one message can be sent at
a time, but up to four can be re¬
ceived simultaneously. Four sockets
in the transporter are activated by a
unique vector that contains the
SETUP RECEIVE command; these
sockets thus operate independently.
Messages are split into a user-data
portion and a user-control portion,
and each is assigned its own host
computer memory buffer area by
the SETUP RECEIVE command for
that particular socket.

Network devices initiate com¬
mands by sending 3 bytes, which
represent a 24-bit address, to the
local transporter. This address con¬
tains the command vector, which
includes a command code, a result-
record address, and other informa¬
tion required to process the com¬
mand. After the command has been

Table 1: Currently Supported Omninet Commands

INITIALIZE

Initialize transporter (automatic at power-on)

SEND MESSAGE

Send a message to a specific node or broadcast to all nodes

SETUP RECEIVE

Prepare to receive a message

END RECEIVE

Stop receiving messages

WHO AMI

Return node ID number

ECHO

Check for the existence of a specified node

PEEK/POKE

Set transporter parameters (e.g., number of retries)

PC Tech Journal

executed, the transporter signals the
host by altering the result record.
Computers that support interrupts
will generate one after the result
record has been modified.

Disk servers have limited buffer
space; disk commands longer than
4 bytes are sent in two parts. The
first transfer sends the first 4 bytes
of one disk command to the server.
The host computer waits for a
"GO" response from the server be¬
fore it sends the rest of the com¬
mand. The server can queue one re¬
quest for each network device.

System Set-up

The hardware set-up for Omninet is
reasonably simple in concept: each
device in the network must have a
transporter board installed and set to
a unique address. Corvus devices,
such as the disk and utility servers,
come with the transporter hardware
already installed.

Each device is connected from
its transporter board to the trunk
cable by a drop cable and a trans¬
ceiver (called a tap box). The drop
cable plugs into the tap box with a
jack, but the trunk cable attach¬
ment is a little trickier.

The outer shield of the
trunk cable must be
carefully stripped, so
as not to cut the in¬
ner shielding, and the
cable placed into two slots
in the tap box. It takes a fine, steady
hand with a knife, razor blade, or
pair of wire strippers to accomplish
this. The bus must be terminated
with two resistors, which are not
included in the price of the net¬
work. (We got ours at Radio Shack
for 39 cents.)

The hardware documentation
is, for the most part, clearly written,
but it is not well organized. Each
device comes with its own manual;
another manual contains the in¬
structions for installing the soft¬
ware,- and the transporter boards
come with a separate pamphlet de¬
tailing the set-up of the boards.

cables, and tap boxes. There are no
indices in some of the manuals, and
we often had three of them on our
laps simultaneously while attempt¬
ing to diagnose a problem.

Several omissions and errors
caused considerable installation
problems. One error was serious
enough to make installation impos¬
sible as described. A picture of the
address dip switches shows all the
switches UP as address 00. Unfor¬
tunately, this is backwards; all
switches UP should be address 63.
When the system-generation pro¬
gram asked for the address of the
server to be installed, it found no
server with address 00; the system
hung and had to be rebooted.

This problem would not have
been as serious if all of the switch
settings were consistently incorrect.
In fact, they were correctly de¬
scribed in some places (in the pam¬
phlets for the transporter boards, for
example). The dip switch problem,
which plagued us throughout

the installation,

OmniDrive Diagnostic Guide. As in
all of the hardware manuals, these
sections are organized in a "paint-
by-number" scheme: follow each
step in the guides, and the installa¬
tion is complete when all the num¬
bers have been used up. This would
have been a satisfactory presentation
had everything gone smoothly.
When problems occurred, however,
it was less than satisfactory. There
are few, if any, problem-determina¬
tion procedures other than "Contact
your Corvus representative."

The software comes on four
diskettes, three of which are the
p-System software kernel. The
fourth contains PC-DOS drivers and
the user-station software for manag¬
ing volumes and performing print
spooling functions. Corvus main¬
tains that the Omninet diskettes are
not copy protected, but we were un¬
successful in making back-ups for
two of the three p-System disks.

The system set-up and main¬
tenance software is entirely menu
driven and simple to use. Once it

caused us to coin our Omninet Mot¬
to: What goes up, must be down.

The most irritating aspect of the
installation process was the lack
of meaningful error messages and,
in some cases, the absence of any
error messages at all. Although the
system does present error codes on
occasion, there was no table of error
messages in the documentation.

Also missing were several errata
sheets that were essential.

The main manual is divided
into four sections: system genera¬
tion, system manager's guide, net¬
work station user's guide, and

was correctly installed, we had no
problem with the software.

Software installation is begun
by booting the system-generation
diskette, CORMS21, and entering
the system password provided in the
manual. The initial menu presents
several choices: Initialize Drive,
Drive Management, Maintenance
Utilities, Configure System, List
Drives, and Help. All disk servers
on the network must be initialized
before installation can proceed.
When the drive initialization option
is selected, another menu appears
that asks the user to name the disk

September i984

CORVUS

server, create a server password,
name the drive, and create a drive
password. The standard configura¬
tion allows up to 512 users, 512 vol¬
umes, three computer types, and

of volumes are made when the user
is granted volume access.

Interestingly, the manual,
which contains an extensive walk¬
through of the installation proce¬

four Omninet disk servers. If these
parameters are not satisfactory, or if
Apple II computers will be part of
the network, other configurations
can be designated.

Once the drive(s) have been ini¬
tialized, the Omninet software
copies system files from the floppy
disk drive to the Corvus Volume.
The entire process is well prompted
from clear menus and takes about
30 minutes. The system must be re¬
booted to continue the installation.

Selecting the Drive Manage¬
ment option at the main menu
brings up a second-level menu that
contains additional programs to
manage volumes, volume access,
users and devices, and operating-
system boot environment. At this
point, volumes need to be created
for the network users. This is easily
done by choosing the Volume Man¬
ager option; another menu floats to
the top. Volumes are created with a
name, size, and operating system
type. Adding volumes is done by re¬
petitively pressing a few keys until
the disk runs out of space, the user
runs out of patience, or all desired
volumes have been created.

Privacy protection in Omninet
is implemented by granting selected
access to a volume or volumes with
the Access Manager. Access can be
read-only or read/write. As many as
10 volumes can be automatically as¬
signed to drive letters (called
mounting) when the user boots the
station software. These assignments

RAM disk) are assigned to a drive
letter, these device drivers should
precede the Corvus driver in the
CONFIG.SYS file. This procedure
will mount all Corvus volumes on
drive letters following those of the
local MS-DOS device drivers.

Information Transfer

File and message transfers, as well as
print spooling, are implemented
with a pipe area. This is a special
volume, called PIPES, created in the
mass storage system. All users who
will be transferring information

dure, grants the user access before
the user is actually created. The sys¬
tem doesn't seem to care whether or
not the user really exists.

Users are created with the User
Manager facility. They are assigned
a password, a home disk server, and
a boot operating system. For obvious
reasons, the user's boot operating
system must agree with the vol¬
umes that have been mounted with
the access manager.

The creation of DOS 2.0 boot
disks for the user station involves
the process of copying the files on
the CORMS24 diskette to an MS-
DOS diskette that has been format¬
ted with the system on it. A CON¬
FIG.SYS file on the boot disk must
contain this instruction:

DEVICE = CORDRV.BIN

If Other device drivers (such as a

For DOS 1.1, a custom BIOS
interface routine containing the
Corvus device driver is installed on
the disk server. The boot disk re¬
ceives a modified boot record that
transfers control to that custom
BIOS routine.

The system is rebooted with the
user-station diskette, which presents
the CORVUS sign-on menu and
prompts for the user's password.
When it has been successfully en¬
tered, any AUTOEXEC.BAT file is
executed, and the familiar DOS
prompt appears. All mounted vol¬
umes are accessible with drive let¬
ters beginning with the first one
available after the local drives. For
example, if a host computer has two
floppies, a RAM disk, and a fixed
disk, the first network volume
would be mounted on drive E.-.

Software set-up was easy (no dip
switches here). Because it is written
in p-System, however, the Omninet
software goes back to the disk to
load and initialize an overlay for
each menu selection. After only a
little while, the delays became irri¬
tating. Clearly, system installation is
not a frequently performed task, so
its duration is not a significant fac¬
tor,- however, repetitive installations
induced by error conditions can
make the process time-consuming,
although the system manager would
rarely spend several hours a day
with the set-up utilities.

PC Tech Journal

must have access to this volume.
Once the volume is created, users
send files to the pipe area with the
name of the intended recipient,
which is designated as the pipe
name. The pipe name can be an¬
other user, a local printer, or a de¬
vice, such as the print server.

Files transmitted via pipes are a
convenient way of converting files
from one operating system format to
another. Information can be re¬
trieved from PIPES by using the
DESPOOL program and naming the
pipe for which to search. Files that
are spooled to a print spooler are de-
spooled automatically.

Internode spooling requires the
purchase of the Omninet print serv¬
er or a PC with an attached printer.
Otherwise, users are limited to
spooling to local printers or to the
display. Although Corvus describes
the PIPES volume as a message cen¬
ter, it was awkward to use.

The SPOOL and DESPOOL pro¬
grams default to PRINTER as the
name of the pipe to be used. Thus,
in order to send a file or a message
to another node, these programs
must be reconfigured to reflect the
change in pipe name. This change
is not saved, which requires the
sender or recipient to load the pro¬
gram and perform the change man¬
ually each time it is desired.

If a message is waiting in PIPES,
the recipient is not informed; he or
she must periodically check the vol¬
ume for the correct pipe name. Al¬
though the user can despool to the
printer, file, or console, the message
is gone forever and cannot be re¬
peated once it has been despooled.

This would not be critical if
reasonable error checking were per¬
formed so that the recipient could
change a disk or close the drive
door. We despooled a message to a
full disk by accident: the message
was removed from the pipe by the
despooler and tossed away.

Corvus markets a separate elec¬
tronic mail package called Omni-
Mail for use with the network. If

Table 2: Benchmark Results

PC-DOS

1 user

2 users

2.0

stn. 1

stn. 2

stn. 1

stn. 2

I/O Benchmarks (in seconds)

random access

0:06

0:08

0:07

0:16

0:14

sequential read/write

0:29

0:36

0:32

0:49

sequential read

0:14

0:16

0:15

0:24

dBASE sort, 1 key

0:40

0:42

0:51

0:47

dBASE index, 1 key

0:29

0:34

0:60

dBASE index, 2 keys

0:29

0:32

0:55

Word Processor Benchmarks

WordPerfect:

load wp from hard disk

0:04

0:08

0:15

0:13

load wp from floppy disk

0:14

0:11

0:10

0:11

exit wp (to hard disk)

0:01

0:04

0,03

0:05

0:04

load file from floppy

0:04

0:03

save file to floppy

0:18

0:19

0:20

load file from hard disk

0:02

0:03

0:04

save file to hard disk

0:15

0:16

0:20

WordStar:

load wp from hard disk

0:06

0:07

0:08

load wp from floppy disk

0:07

exit wp (to hard disk)

load file from floppy

0:03

0:10

0:03

0:10

save file to floppy

0:32

0:33

0:34

load file from hard disk

0:03

0:04

0:06

save file to hard disk

0:10

0:12

0:19

0:17

message transfer is a priority for the
network, the extra expense should
be considered. (We did not receive
OmniMail in time for our review.)

One of the most pleasant fea¬
tures of Omninet is its mass storage
tape back'-up, called the Bank. Tapes
are available in 100- or 200-mega-
byte capacities, and the software
provides elegant and flexible options
for saving and restoring disk images
and volumes. Additionally, an en¬
tire drive can be copied to a second
drive, or a tape transferred to a sec¬
ond tape (assuming there is a second
Bank on the network).

Performance

We tested OMNINET with six
small benchmark programs designed
to view network performance with
a heavy I/O load (see table 2). The
random-access test writes 50 records,
within a 1,000-record file, to 50
other records. Each record is 50
bytes long. The sequential-read test

reads 641 lines, each 50 bytes long,
within a 40,000-byte file. The se¬
quential read/write test reads and
then writes 641 lines, each 50 bytes
long, to another file.

The dBASE II benchmarks used
200 records, each containing fields
for name, address, telephone num¬
ber, and zip code. These records
were sorted on one key, indexed on
one key, and indexed on two keys.
The word processor benchmarks
were performed with WordStar and
WordPerfect, in conjunction with a
30,000-byte file.

The programs were run under
several different conditions, with
the OMNINET hardware always
in situ, except for the control tests
in the standard single-user PC-DOS
environment. The user-1 unit was
an IBM PC with an expansion chas¬
sis, 512K, a 10-megabyte fixed disk,
and an IBM Graphics printer. The
user-2 machine was a PC with 256K
memory, without a printer.

September i984

CORVUS

First the single-user tests were
done on each unit, while the second
computer was idle. Next, the tests
were performed with both com¬
puters simultaneously running the
benchmarks from different volumes
on the disk server.

Under PC-DOS alone, the ran¬
dom access test took 6 seconds, the
sequential read/write test took 29
seconds, and the sequential read test
took 14 seconds. Performance in the
single-user situation did not decline
noticeably using the Omninet soft¬
ware. When two users performed
these tests simultaneously, bench¬
marks that accessed the fixed disk
showed some degradation, but in
general, the degradation was neither
excessive nor particularly notice¬
able. The Omninet software had a
similarly mild effect on the dBASE
II and word processor benchmarks.

Although the software is rea¬
sonably robust, it does have a few
quirks that range from irritating to
disastrous. Error checking on input
is lackadaisical. Often the system
will accept inaccurate information
without warning the user that it
will do so. When asked to remove a
volume, the volume manager does
not provide a warning message that
files are still present in the volume.

Omninet has few, if any, provi¬
sions for fielding time-out errors. If
a device is unavailable, the com¬
puter that is requesting transmission
hangs. Corvus intends to fix this
problem in another release.

Users might feel somewhat iso¬
lated within Omninet. There is no
way to find out which devices are
hooked to which host computers or
to see who is on the network.

A more serious omission is the
lack of any provision for dynamic
disk, file, and record locking to pre¬
vent data corruption in a multi-user
situation. All users are assumed to
be friendly to the network, but
there is no way, when accessing a
file, to find out if someone else is
currently using it. Corvus imple¬
ments semaphores for these facili¬

ties, and they are available to appli¬
cation programmers who are writing
multi-user software to run on Omni¬
net. However, dynamic locking at
several levels is now available on
many local area networks that do
not even require separate disk serv¬
ers.

The Omninet protection
scheme is primitive; two passwords,
one for the system manager and one
for the disk server, will get a user
into the entire system. Privacy is
available only at the volume level.
Once a user has access to a volume,
he or she has access to every sub¬
directory and file that is contained
therein. There is no way to write-
protect a single file or group of files
within a volume. Again, several
other networks offer more sophisti¬
cated privacy schemes. If privacy
and disk-data corruption are impor¬
tant factors, purchasers of Omninet
will have to look to application pro¬
grams to provide these facilities.

The installation problems aside,
Omninet is nicely designed and gen¬
erally bug-free. The integration of
utility servers and mass storage
back-up provides a sense of unity to
the network hardware and software
environment. More significant,
Omninet's transparency and speed
are excellent. Revised documenta¬
tion and well-implemented applica¬
tion software will augment what is
already a sturdy product, capable of
handling the network requirements
of a small business office. lim—i

Omninet

Corvus Systems, Inc.

2100 Corvus Drive
San Jose, CA 95124
408-559-7000

CIRCLE 484 ON READER SERVICE CARD

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CIRCLE NO. 106 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Mr. Chips Plays Ibur PC
Like a One Man Band

Mr. Chips, the new multi-function
card from Orange Micro, adds a full
ensemble of features to your IBM®
PC. Memory, printer ports, and a
clock are standard, and you’d
expect them on a top quality board.

But computing is changing.

Soon computers will take care of
everyday things; like watering the
lawn, or turning on your lights when
it gets dark. And onlyJVlr. Chips can
do this now. These capabilities are
standard, so your growing needs
won’t require additional equipment.

There’s also a dual game port, so
you can duel to the end, by yourself
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Every Mr. Chips comes with Chip-
disk™ software, for RAM disk and
print spooling. With RAM disk you
set up your PC’s memory to act like
a disk drive. This means much
faster execution and searching of
programs. Print spooling sets your
PC’s RAM to serve as a printer
buffer, so you can compute even
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• Parallel Port*: Great for getting fast printouts on
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• 64K-256K RAM: Upgrade your PC’s memory to
handle powerful Integrated software and other larger
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• Clock/Calendar: Accurately keep track of time and
date, even when your computer is turned off.

• Dual Game Port*: Accommodate two complete joy¬
sticks at once, so you can play alone or duel with a
friend. Also for use with CAD/CAM software.

• Real World Interface: This innovative port can moni¬
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detectors, photocells and other independent devices.

■ BSR is a registered trademark of the BSR Corporation

■ IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation

• BSR™AC Line Controller*: Control your lights, appli¬
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• Chipdisk RAM Disk: Set your PC memory to act like
a disk drive. Your programs will run much faster than
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• Cables available separately

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(714) 779-2772 TELEX: 183511CSMA

CIRCLE NO. 168 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Arthur A. Gleckler

CDMmRING
GREAT THINGS
WITH SMALL

Photo 1: IBM's Compact
Printer—a low-end,
inexpensive printer for
the PC/r owner

I BM has recently added two
new printers to its line of per¬
sonal computer products. The
PC Compact Printer, for use
with the PC/r only, prints on
special thermal paper. The Color
Graphics Printer, a monster of a ma¬
chine (at 55 centimeters wide by 32
centimeters deep by 25 centimeters
high), prints graphics and near-let¬
ter-quality text in color.

IBM's Color Graphics
and Compact printers
serve two very
different segments of
the PC marketplace.

PC Compact Printer

The PC Compact Printer is truly
compact (31 centimeters wide by 19
centimeters deep by 9 centimeters
high) and extremely simple in de¬
sign (see photo 1). Only three con¬
trols are on the outside of the
printer: a paper release lever, a
paper feed button, and an on/off
switch. A curved cover over the print¬
ing mechanism lifts to reveal a rack
for roll paper. Because the printer
has been designed specifically for
the PC/r, there are no DIP switches
to set or cables to build; instal¬
ling the printer is simplicity itself.

The PC Compact Printer has
three paper-feeding options: rolls of

September i984

Printers

Photo 2: IBM's Color Graphics Printer—a monster of a printer
for the business user

paper, single sheets, and fanfold pa¬
per. Because it uses thermal printing
technology, the PC Compact Printer
can print only on specially treated,
thermal paper. Although thermal
printers are quiet, they also have
their disadvantages. Text printed by
thermal printers tends to be rather
light immediately after printing,
and it gradually fades away over
time, especially when exposed to
bright light. The poor print quality
and the characteristic silver sheen
of thermal paper result in a less-
than-satisfactory printed product;
the paper is also expensive.

In defense of IBM, it may be
said that this printer was designed
for low cost and the printing needs
of the average PC/r user. Still, many
PC/r owners undoubtedly will pur¬
chase slightly more expensive im¬
pact printers rather than tolerate
the poor print quality of the PC
Compact Printer.

Although most of the control
codes used with the PC Compact
Printer are carry-overs from pre¬
vious IBM and Epson printers.

many capabilities are lacking in the
new printer. Although the Compact
Printer can print double-width and
compressed text, it does not have
emphasized, double-strike, sub¬
scripted, or superscripted text, and it
has only low-density graphics. In
terms of control codes, it is simply a
scaled-down version of the IBM
Graphics Printer. Unfortunately, be¬

cause of the lack of medium-density
graphics, DOS 2.Ts GRAPHICS.-
COM graphic screen-dump utility
does not work with the Compact.

The PC Compact Printer has a
built-in, three-wire cable that at¬
taches to the serial connector
(marked "S"') on the rear of the PC/r
cabinet. To attach most of today's
printers to the PC/r, a parallel print¬
er port attachment device is needed.
IBM's decision to use the PC/r's
built-in serial port for the PC Com¬
pact Printer lowered the cost of the
printer.

The documentation included
with the PC Compact Printer con¬
sists of one 36-page insert for the
PCjr Guide to Operations. The first
section of the manual details how to
insert paper, test the printer, and at¬
tach it to the PC/r. It also explains
the shortcomings of thermal paper
and suggests ways to delay the fad¬
ing effect. Technical information in
the manual includes a list of printer
control codes and their functions, a
list of legal print mode combina¬
tions, a chart of the characters that
the PC Compact Printer can print
(these include most of the PC char¬
acter set but not the line-drawing
characters), and a diagram of con¬
nections in the serial cable.

The PC Compact Printer is
suited for the home environment in

Thr Dugl"ip».« t

report F

or XBM COLOR PRIN

TER (DP MODE)

Eilapiiied i. in

1 e ™ 3 6

seco o (d ‘.H o r 50

lines of text.

ia5 eharii

•LeterK pe
Line*r» pe

r second for 3350

r in i 11 i.ie .

characters.

Figure 1: A Sample Printed by the IBM Color Graphics Printer
(DP Mode) Showing Results of PC Magazine Printer Test

Figure 2: A Sample of Text Printed by the IBM Color Graphics
Printer (Text Quality Mode) Showing Results o/PC Magazine
Printer Test

Figure 3: A Sample of Text Printed by the IBM Color Graphics
Printer (Near Letter Quality Mode) Showing Results
of PC Magazine Printer Test

PC Tech Journal

THE

8" DISKETTE SYSTEM FOR THE IBM PC

8" Diskette file exchange between the IBM PC and
most micro-mini-mainframe computer systems.

8" Diskette text document exchange between the
IBM PC and many word processing systems.

8" Diskette to SV 4 " formats for hundreds of other
systems, even Textpack and Wordstar to the new
DisplayWrite 2 format.

FLAGSTAFF ENGINEERING / P. O. Box 1970 / Flagstaff, AZ 86002
Telephone 602-774-5188 / Telex 705609 FLAG-END-UD

CIRCLE NO. 213 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Printers

ABBREV

MEANING

DECIMAL CODE

BEL

Bell

Backspace

CAN

Clear Buffer

Carriage return

DEL

Delete character

127

ESC

Escape character

Form feed

Horizontal tab

Line feed

NUL

Null character

Vertical tab

( 1

Choice of possible values

Repeated

Table 1: Abbreviation Key to Tables 2, 3, and 4

FUNCTION

BIT IMAGE GRAPHICS

ASCII CODE

Double-speed, medium-density graphics

ESC Y length_word data. .

♦Low-density graphics

ESC K length_word data. .

Medium-density graphics

FORMAT CONTROL

ESC L length_\yord data. .

♦Horizontal tab

♦Horizontal tab set

ESC D positions. . NUL

♦Form feed

♦Set form length in lines

ESC C number_of_lines

Set form length in inches

ESC C NUL number of inches

♦Vertical tab

♦Vertical tab set

LINE SPACING

ESC B positions. . NUL

♦Set line spacing to 1/8 inch

(1/9 inch on IBM Compact Printer)

ESCO

♦Set line spacing to 7/72 inch

(1/12 inch on IBM Color Printer,

1/9 inch on IBM Compact Printer)

ESC 1

♦Set line spacing to 1/6 inch

MISCELLANEOUS

ESC 2

Bell

BEL

♦Carriage return

♦Null

NUL

♦Print left-to-right for one line

ESC <

Unidirectional print start/end

PAPER FEED EXECUTION

ESCU {0, 1}

♦Line feed

♦Perforation-skip mode cancel

ESCO

♦Perforation-skip mode set

ESC N number_of_lines

PRINT MODES

♦Compressed mode cancel

DC2

♦Compressed mode set

Double-strike mode cancel

ESC H

Double-strike mode set

ESCG

Emphasized mode cancel

ESC F

Emphasized mode set

ESCE

♦Enlarged mode cancel

DC4

♦Enlarged mode set/cancel

ESC W {0, 1}

♦Enlarged mode set

Superscript/subscript mode cancel

ESCT

Superscript/subscript mode set

ESC S {0, 1}

♦Underlined mode set/cancel
*compatible with IBM Compact Printer

ESC - {0, 1}

Table 2: Functions Common to Epson FX-80, IBM Graphics, and
IBM Color Printers

FAST

LETTER
QUALITY
FOR YOUR

EPSON

Now you can print letter quality on
your Epson FX printer at full text¬
mode speed, up to 10 tinnes faster
than with programs using graphics
mode. Printer Boss'^'^ software
gives you two-pass dot-matrix let¬
ter quality and lets you create a
printer buffer of up to 32K. Or print
multi-page spreadsheets as wide
as you like, sideways on your paper,
at high speed, in a choice of five dif¬
ferent type sizes.

Printer Boss'^^ also allows full
menu-based operation of all control
functions of all of the Epson MX, FX
and RX printers. Select and de¬
select pica, elite, compressed, italic,
enlarged, emphasized, doublestrike,
underline, superscript and subscript
for scores of different faces. Set line
spacing, right and left margins and
skip-over-perforation. Load USA,
France, Germany, England, Den¬
mark, Sweden, Italy, Spain and
Japan language sets. Control unidi¬
rectional, half-speed and proportion¬
ally-spaced printing. Store and re¬
trieve 10 complete menu settings
with a few keystrokes. Emulate the
IBM-label printer for the IBM-PC
while retaining full printer versatility.
Download to FX printers five dif¬
ferent IBM character sets, includ¬
ing graphics symbols, greek sym¬
bols, screen and APL characters.
Print at full text-mode speed. Ideal
for IBM graphics software, or
screen dumps, or printing text from
Wordstar, Lotus 123 or many other
fine programs.

Printer Boss^m for the IBM-PC and
compatibles $59.95. With Letter
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30 WILSON AVENUE
ROWAYTON CT 06853
203-838-1844

SIDEKICK IS NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH SIDE¬
WAYS. A TRADEMARK OF FUNK SOFTWARE. PRINT¬
ER BOSS. LETTER BOSS AND SIDEKICK ARE TRADE¬
MARKS OF SPEER RESEARCH CORPORATION.
WORDSTAR AND LOTUS 123 ARE TFIADEMARKS OF
MICROPRO INT'LCORPAND LOTUS DEVELOPMENT
CORP RESPECTIVELY.

that it is easy to use and inexpen¬
sive. If the problems inherent to
thermal printing are ignored, it is
an attractive printer.

Color Graphics Printer

The IBM Color Graphics Printer
was designed with performance, not

cost-consciousness, in mind. It is a
rugged machine; its case is made
with surprisingly strong (6-milli¬
meter-thick) plastic, and the entire
print mechanism is built on a
sturdy metal frame (see photo 2).
The print-head-positioning motor is
large (9 centimeters in diameter.

CIRCLE NO. 235 ON READER SERVICE CARD

PC Tech Journal

compared to 3.5 centimeters for the
motor on the Epson FX-80). In short,
the IBM Color Graphics Printer is
built like a tank.

On the front of the printer is a
group of buttons for manual control
of printer functions, including line
feed, form feed, top-of-page set,
printer test, and power on/off. Be¬
low this is a slot for inserting single
sheets of paper into the printer,-
continuous-form paper is fed
through a slot located underneath
the printer. The Color Graphics
Printer can handle standard and
wide (up to 30.5-centimeter) forms
with its fully adjustable tractors.

On the inside front wall of the
printer are the DIP switches, which
control character set, line spacing,
perforation-skip mode, automatic
line-feed mode, line width, page
length, print quality, and other
functions. They can be reached by
simply raising the access cover. A
fuse, located on the rear panel of
the printer, is as easily accessible
as the DIP switches.

By far the most interesting fea¬
ture of the Color Graphics Printer is
its ability to print text and graphics
in red, blue, yellow, black, and any
combination thereof. This capability
is achieved through the use of a
multicolored ribbon and a mecha¬
nism that controls which part of the
ribbon is in front of the print head
at any time. Although no software
is included with the printer to test
its color graphics, its use of standard
Epson bit image graphics control
codes makes custom programming
quite easy to do. However, a simple
screen-print utility would have been
a welcome (and impressive) addition
to the standard features of the Color
Graphics Printer. Alas.

Another impressive feature of
this printer is its print quality. The
printer will produce text compara¬
ble to that of the Epson FX-80 at 200
characters per second (see figure 1),
and by sending a control code (or
setting one of the DIP switches),
two other print-quality levels can be

September i984

NEW From The Makers Of pr'and "

The Unique Keyboard Utility with:

• ONLINE MACRO LISTING

(See a listing of your macros at any time - instantly!)

• ONLINE FULL SCREEN MACRO EDITOR

Create or Modify your macros from within your favorite software programs.

• USER DESIGNABLE HELP MENU CREATION

Quickly and easily create your own help menus that can be displayed within
your programs.

KEYSWAP 3.0 is the most advanced macro processor available for the IBM
PC, XT and COMPATIBLES! - Includes ALL OF PROKEY’S FUNCTIONS and
many more.

KEYSWAP 3.0 is the macro processor that can add a new dimension in
USERFRIENDLINESS to your PC.

WITH KEYSWAP 3.0 YOU CAN:

Record a series of complicated keystrokes used to invoke and set up a
program for data entry.

Condense many time consuming keystrokes into just one.

Create “lessons” that can be played back at variable speed for tutorial or
demo purposes.

Create a single macro definition as large as 64K.

Redefine any keys (I.e. shift) or define any macro character.

IMAGINE: Automatic time and date display; fixed and variable definition fields;
audible feedback on toggle keys; alternate cursor control selection, and
keyboard customization.

KEYSWAP 3.0 - State of the art keyboard utility software. For the
IBM PC, XT, and IBM COMPATIBLES.

PRICE: $119.00 (RETAIL)

+ 2.50 Shipping & Handling. MA res add 5% Sis. TX.

SPECIAL OFFER:

TRADE IN YOUR OLD MACRO PROGRAMS:

KEYSWAP (PER), PROKEY*, etc.

(Call or write for details)

RICKERDATA

P.O. Box 998, Melrose, MA 02176 (617) 662-0856
MC & VISA ACCEPTED

•Registered Trademark RoseSoft ** Registered Trademark IBM

CIRCLE NO. 150 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Printers

FUNCTION

EPSON FX-80

IBM GRAPHICS

IBM COLOR

BIT IMAGE GRAPHICS

8-pin graphics

ESC ♦ graphics__mode (0-6)

length word data.

9-pin graphics

ESC ® (0, 1} length word data.

High-density graphics

ESC Z length word data.

ESC Z length__word data.

DOWNLOADABLE

CHARACTER

SET CONTROL

Copy ROM fonts to download

ESC : NUL NUL NUL

area

Define download character

ESC & NUL data.

generator

Select internal/download

ESC& {0, 1} NUL

generator

FORMAT CONTROL

Automatic right justify

ESCM {0, 1}

Backspace

*Clear tabs

ESCR

Column width set

ESC Q number of characters

Left margin set

ESC 1 number of spaces

Margin set

ESC X left margin right margin

Set line spacing to n/72 inch

ESC An

ESC A n ESC 2

0 <= n < = 85

Set line spacing to n/144 inch

ESC3n

Set line spacing to n/216 inch

ESC3n

Top of page set

ESC 4

Variable forward space n/120

ESC d n (2 bytes)

inch

Variable reverse space

ESC e n (2 bytes)

VFU channel select

ESC / channel (0-7)

VFU position set

ESC b channel (0-7)

positions. . NUL

INPUT DATA CONTROL

Bit 7 = one

ESC >

Bit 7 = zero

ESC ==

Bit 7 control cancel

ESC#

♦Clear buffer

CAN

Clear last byte in buffer

DEL

Control code character set select

ESC 7

Print characters above 128

ESC 6

Print characters below 32

ESC \ number of chars (2 bytes)

Print a character below 32

ESC °

Printer deselect

DC3

ESCQ2

Printer select

DCl

Undefined area as

ESC I {0, 1}

control/printable

MISCELLANEOUS

Aspect ratio set

ESCn {0, 1}

(0 = 5:6, 1 = 1:1)

Automatic ribbon hand shift

ESC a

Control value data type select

ESC® {0, 1}

Half-speed printing cancel/select

ESCs {0,1}

Immediates print cancel/select

ESCi {0, 1}

Initialize printer

ESC@

Initialize signal function set

ESC? {0, 1}

International character set select

ESC R character_set (0-8)

Ribbon band 1 select

ESCy

Ribbon band 2 select

ESC m

Ribbon band 3 select

ESCc

Ribbon band 4 select

ESCb

PAPER FEED EXECUTION

Forward feed n/144 inch

ESCf n

Forward feed n/216 inch

ESC J n_

ESC f n_

Reverse feed n/216 inch

ESC j n_

Reverse feed one line

ESC]

PRINT MODES

Character set 1 select

ESC 7

Character set 2 select

ESC 6

Compressed mode select

ESC SI

Elite mode select

ESCM

ESC :

Elite mode deselect

ESCP

Enlarged mode select

ESC SO

Italic mode deselect

ESCS

Italic mode select

ESC 4

Print mode select

ESC ! print_mode (0-63)

Printing quality select

ESC I print quality (1-3)

Proportional spacing set/cancel

ESCp {0, 1}

ESCP {0, 1}

^compatible with IBM Compact Printer

Table 3: Functions DifEering among Epson FX-80, IBM Graphics, and IBM Color Printers

PC Tech Journal

"There’s no magic to usingyour
personal computer for data acquisition.”

There’s no trick to it.

It’s as easy as calling Data Translation.

So take your choice of our new single board
plug-ins and bring complete analog and digital I/O
capabilities to your personal computer.

Whether you’re working in laboratory
research or industrial process control, our single
boards can give you measurement and control
capabilities without having to spend big bucks.

And who knows that better than the lead¬
ing supplier of low cost data acquisition boards,
systems, and software?

Our boards include multi-channel A/D
with programmable gain, D/A, digital I/O, a pro¬
grammable clock and many have direct memory
access capabilities. With power and performance
to match your PC, our analog interfaces provide
12,14, or 16-bit A/D resolution and direct con¬
nection for high or low level signal inputs.

And these boards are easy to use. They
plug into the PC’s bacl^lane. No messy external
lx)xes or cables. User input connections are
simple with our compatible line of screw termi¬
nal panels for all of the PO capabilities.

And comprehensive user manuals with

DATA ACQUISITION FOR PC’S

12-BIT

DIGITAL

PROG.

SOFTWARE

A/D

D/A

I/O

CLOCK

LIBRARY

IBM PC ™

APPLE II™

Tl PROFESSIONAL™

DEC RAINBOW™

COMPAQ™ Portable

Fred Molinari, President

many programming examples get you up and running fast.

These easy to use, and easy to program boards are
highly reliable at a very low cost, and of course fully backed
by Data Translation’s service and support team.

So why look any further? No other analog TO systems
can offer PC users such quality,
power and performance for such
a reasonable price.

But you probably expected
that. After all, making data
tion easy is what we’re all about.

And that’s no illusion.

Call (617) 481-3700.

CIRCLE NO. 139 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Data Translation is the leading supplier
of personal computer hardware and software
for data acquisition and control.

See our

supplement in Gold
1984, Vol. Ill, and our 336 pg.
catalog/handbook in Gold
Book 1983.

EMlATRANSLAnON

World Headquarters: Data Translation, Inc., 100 Locke Dr., Marlboro, MA 01752 (617) 481-3700 Tlx 951-646.

European Headquarters: Data Translation, Ltd., 430 Bath Rd., Slough, Berkshire SLI 6BB England (06286) 3412 Tlx 849-862.

\BN\ PC is a registered trademark of IBM. Apple II is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Corp. Tl Professional is a registered trademark of Texas Instruments, Inc.
DEC Rainbow is a registered trademark of Digital Equipment Corp. COMPAQ is a registered trademark of COMPAQ Computer Corp.

Printers

chosen. The Text Quality mode
(figure 2) produces print only slight¬
ly better than the Epson; the Near
Letter Quality mode (figure 3) pro¬
duces text almost indistinguishable
from that of a typewriter. In this
mode, the print head makes two
passes over every line. This slows
the printer considerably, but the re¬
sults are well worth the wait. The

printer also has a proportional print
mode that can be used in conjunc¬
tion with any of the print modes.

The documentation included
with the Color Graphics Printer is
149 pages long, designed to be in¬
serted in the Guide to Operations. It
is complete, well-written, and in¬
cludes detailed information on
every aspect of the printer. The in-

DEVELOP BETTER SOFTWARE
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PROGRAM

DEVELOPMENT TOOL
(PDT-PC)

for IBM-PC* and Compatibles

PDT-PC TRANSFORMS YOUR IBM-PC/XT INTO THE MOST POWERFUL
DEBUGGING AND ANALYSIS TOOL AVAILABLE FOR THE PC ENVIRONMENT:

• SYMBOLIC DEBUGGING AND ANALYSIS
• • LOCAL AND GLOBAL SYMBOLS

•• HIGH-LEVEL LANGUAGE LINE NUMBERS

•• FULL SYMBOLIC SUPPORT FOR OVERLAYS AND CODE MODULES

• SUPPORTS BOTH INTEL AND PC-DOS OBJECT MODULE FORMATS

• DISPLAY BUFFER TO RECALL UP TO 200 LINES OF INFORMATION

• INTUITIVE HUMAN INTERFACE

• REAL-TIME PROGRAM EXECUTION MEASUREMENT

• REAL-TIME MEMORY UTILIZATION MEASUREMENT

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ONLY THE PDT-PC INTEGRATES A FULL-FEATURED DEBUGGER WITH AN 8088
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•IBM-PC is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation

CIRCLE NO. 206 ON READER SERVICE CARD

stallation and operation sections
have many clear illustrations. Com¬
plete technical information, includ¬
ing a list of the printer control codes
and their functions, a chart explain¬
ing DIP switch settings, and a com¬
plete list of all printable characters
(the Color Graphics Printer can
print every symbol in the PC char¬
acter set), is provided. A quick refer¬
ence card would be a handy addi¬
tion to the documentation, consider¬
ing the complexity and flexibility of
the control code set.

The Color Graphics Printer is
supplied with a diagnostics package
identical to that included in the
Guide to Operations except that it
has been updated to test the Color
Graphics Printer, as well as the IBM
Matrix and IBM Graphics printers.
A complete replacement for the
Problem Determination Procedures
section of the Guide to Operations
is supplied with this software. Un¬
fortunately, the program tests only
the printer's ability to print text,
not graphics, in multiple colors.

Compatibility with Other
Epson and IBM Printers

Control code compatibility is a
major issue in designing printers.
IBM has chosen to maintain as
much compatibility as possible with
its earlier printers (which were
made by Epson and therefore used
Epson's control codes). By doing
this, IBM has ensured that software
authors will not have to rewrite
code entirely to make it work on
more than one IBM printer. This is
good for the programmer,- it is also
good for IBM, because it makes it
easier for software authors to sup¬
port IBM's printers (see my article,
"Epson Technical Comparison," PC
Tech Journal, September/October
1983, page 130, for more on printer
compatibility issues).

Table 1 lists all control codes
that can be used without modifica¬
tion on the Epson FX-80, the IBM
Graphics, and the IBM Color
Graphics printers. Functions that

PC Tech Journal

fcpoint encountered, CS’ IP:. .f1EMOfiY_TESTERI100
OP

R CODE OPERAND!S)

B JMP $+0082
10RY_TESTERI99-
D ADD WORD PTR IF5B2J.0040

;. .riEH0RY_TESTERI99
;.nEnADDR+0002

READ - DS
3 READ - DS - 10

I WRITE - DS - 40

3 WRITE - DS - 10

LOCAL UARIABLES OH THE STACK
JFFER : 09D3;0000 BUFFERLEHGTH -- 001F
BUFFER CONTENTS

SS:09D3 DS:09D3 ES:1000
SP:F580 SI:F5B8 DI:09D3
BP:F580

FL: 00 D0 II T0 S0 Z0 A0 P0 C0

0010

80 00 00

IA5

CS:0632

IFF

1P--01C2

106

100

s PC Probe Version X103

(OCopvright Atron Corp. 1983, 1984

ATRON Announces
A State of the Art Advance in
Source Level Software Debugging

PROGRAMMERS AND
MANAGERS know that finding bugs
during new product development and
over the entire product life cycle adds up
to a significant portion of total product
development cost and support time.
Investing in the right debugging tools will
greatly improve time to market as well as
minimize development cost. Atron Corp.
has the right debugging tools for the PC
environment. These are:

1) PC PROBE

2) SOURCE PROBE

3) PERFORMANCE ANALYZER

These tools run on a PC or compatible.

A Snapshot of Real Time
Program Execution

Program flow is saved in trace memory
while running at full speed. PC PROBE
can display trace data as high level
language source code or as 8088
instructions. Real time trace answers
the question “How did I get here”?

A Bullet of Proof Debugger

What good is a debugger that can be
wiped out by an undebugged program?
PROBE software is write protected and
can't be changed.

Trap Memory

The PC PROBE has 8 breakpoints and
can trap conditions such as instruction
execution, read, write, 10, DMA. interrupt,
or external logic probes. Breakpoints can
also be set on ranges of address or
data — symbolically too!

Don’t Look in the Manual

The PC PROBE designers know the
importance of EASE OF USE. The PC
PROBE interface has a menu window
which displays the syntax of each
command — so you never have to
remember how a command works. It also
recalls the previous invocation of each
command to save tedious typing — and
tedious thinking!

Symbolic Debugging

Avoid the tedium of sifting through link
maps to find out where things are. The
PC PROBE uses your C. PASCAL, or
assembly language program symbols.

Macro Commands

Why be limited by a fixed set of de¬
bugging commands? PC PROBE lets you
create your own powerful macro
commands with parameter passing, nest¬
ing. LOOPING and IF/THEN/ELSE
control.

ANNOUNCING
SOURCE PROBE

Why waste time with a debugger which
shows your C or PASCAL programs in
8088 assembly language. Atron’s new
SOURCE PROBE let’s you step, real time
trace, and edit your Hi Level source code
during debug. Display data structures in
the format which your program uses.

PERFORMANCE

ANALYZER

How do you find time critical program
problerris or know where to start
performance tuning your software? Get
Atron’s new Software Performance and
Timing Analyzer. Then you can display
historgrams of how your programs run —
by time or by events. You can perform
many different timing measurements.

Atron has many happy customers who
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because of PC PROBE. Why waste time
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Call us today and ask for your 12-page
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20665 FOURTH STREET • SARATOGA, CA 95070 • (408) 741-5900

CIRCLE NO. 107 ON READER SERVICE CARD

SS 3 HS

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«V.ol. •»«”•"'

Start**

CIRCLE NO. 145 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Printers

FUNCTION

BIT IMAGE GRAPHICS

ASCII CODE

* Low-density graphics

FORMAT CONTROL

ESC K length_word data.

Clear tabs

ESCR

*Form feed

♦Horizontal tab

♦Horizontal tab set

ESC D positions. . NUL

♦Set form length in lines

ESC C number of lines

♦Vertical tab

♦Vertical tab set

INPUT DATA CONTROL

ESC B positions. . NUL

♦Clear buffer

LINE SPACING

CAN

♦Set line spacing to 1/9 inch
(1/8 inch on other printers)

ESCO

♦Set line spacing to 1/9 inch

(1/12 inch on Color,- 7/72 on others)

ESC 1

♦Set line spacing to 1/6 inch

MISCELLANEOUS

ESC 2

♦Carriage return

♦Null

NUL

♦Print left-to-right for one line

PAPER FEED EXECUTION

ESC <

♦Line feed

♦Perforation-skip mode cancel

ESCO

♦Perforation-skip mode set

ESC N number of lines

Set automatic linefeed mode

PRINT MODES

ESC 5

♦Compressed mode cancel

DC2

♦Compressed mode set

♦Enlarged mode cancel

DC4

♦Enlarged mode set/cancel

ESC W {0, n

♦Enlarged mode set

♦Underlined mode set/cancel

ESC-{0,1}

^compatible with Epson FX-80, IBM Graphics, and IBM Color printers

Table 4: Functions Available in the IBM Compact Printer

will also work on the PC Compact
Printer are clearly marked. Table 2
lists functions that cannot be used
on all three printers; table 3 lists the
subset of functions available on the
PC Compact Printer. All but two of
these codes are compatible with the
Epson FX-80, IBM Graphics, and
IBM Color Graphics printers.

The Color Graphics Printer has
all the major features of the Epson
FX-80 save one: character sets that
can be downloaded. Except for this,
the Color Graphics Printer builds
upon the functions of other print¬
ers, with new codes to control rib¬
bon bands and print quality.

The control-code set of the PC
Compact Printer, on the other hand,
is a stripped-down version of that
used in earlier Epson and IBM
printers. The PC Compact Printer
can handle all of the important text¬
handling functions of other printers
and has low-density graphics as
well, but its repertoire does not ex¬
tend far beyond this.

Two Markets Addressed

Both the PC Compact Printer and
the Color Graphics Printer address a
specific part of the printer market¬
place. The PC Compact printer is
designed for home use, and is there¬
fore less expensive and less capable
than other printers. The Color
Graphics Printer, on the other hand,
is designed with quality (and color
graphics) in mind, and is best suited
for business and professional use.
IBM has attempted to maintain con¬
trol-code compatibility with its
other printers, and although it sacri¬
ficed some with the PC Compact, it
has been largely successful. I"'!—i

IBM PC Compact Printer: $175
IBM Color Graphics Printer: $1,995
IBM

P.0, Box 1328

Boca Raton, FL 33432

(800-447-4700)

CIRCLE 500 ON READER SERVICE CARD

My Programs Always
Compile the FirsTime™

Yours can too!

FirsTime is an intelligent editor that
knows the rules of the language being
programmed. It checks your statements
as you enter them, and if it spots a mis¬
take, it identifies it. FirsTime then posi¬
tions the cursor over the error so you
can correct it easily. FirsTime mill iden¬
tify all syntax errors, undefined varia¬
bles, and even statements with mis¬
matched variable types. In fact, any
program developed with the FirsTime
editor will compile on the first try.

Unprecedented

FirsTime has many unique features
found in no other editor. These powerful
capabilities include a zoom command
that allows you to examine the struc¬
ture of your program, automatic pro¬
gram formatting, and block transforms.

If you wish, you can work even faster
by automatically generating program
structures with a single key-stroke. This
feature is especially useful to those
learning a new language, or to those
who often switch between different
languages.

Other Features: Full screen editing,
horizontal scrolling, function keys
labeled on screen, help screens, inserts,
deletes, appends, searches, and global
replacing.

Programmers enjoy using FirsTime,
because its powerful features allow
them to concentrate on the program
logic without having to worry about cod¬
ing details. Debugging is reduced dram¬
atically, and deadlines are more easily
met.

The Spruce FirsTime editor is imme¬
diately available for PASCAL ($245)
and C ($295) on the IBM Personal
Computer and its compatibles. A dem¬
onstration disk is available for $25. (N.J.
residents please add 6% sales tax.)

For programs that compile the
FirsTime.

To order, call or send check to;

Spruce

Technology Corporation

110 Whispering Pines Drive
Lincroft, N.J. 07738
(201) 741-8188 or (201) 663-0063

Dealer enquiries welcome. Custom versions
for computer manufacturers and language
developers are available.

FirstTime is a trademark of Spruce Technology
Corporation.

CIRCLE NO. 132 ON READER SERVICE CARD

September i984

Everything yen need

SOFTWARE

ApTec (for color Prism Printers)

Rainbow Writer Color Text Formatter . .$119.

Rainbow Writer Screen Grabber . 69

Ashton Tate

dBase II. 289

dBase III. 375

Upgrade (dBase II to dBase III) . 139.

Framework. 375.

Friday!. 169

Reference Encyclopedia (book) . 55

Best Programs

PC/Personal Finance Program . 65

PC/Professional Finance Program II .,. 169

PC/Fixed Asset System . 297

PC/Tax Cut. 175

Bible Research

THE WORD fKJt/e/b/e - 7 d/sks; ... 145

Bruce & James

Word Vision. 39

Digital Research

CP/M-86 . 39.

Dr. LOGO (requires 192k & RGB monitor) 69.

Financier

Financier II. 115.

Financier Tax Series. 97.

Funk Software

Sideways. 45.

Lifetree

Volkswriter. 115.

Volkswriter International. 135.

Volkswriter Deluxe (with TextMerge ). .. 175.

Lotus Development

1-2-3 (version 1 A) . call

Symphony. call

Upgrade (1-2-3 to Symphony) . call

Micropro

WordStar & ProPak come with quick lesson
CAI training disk and tutorial disk

WordStar 3.3 . 235.

ProPak (WordStarIMailMergel

CorrectStar/StarIndex) . 359.

Microrim

Ribase 4000 . 297.

Extended Report Writer. 89.

Clout. 129.

Microsoft

Multiplan fver 7.2j. 139.

Microsoft Word (ver 1.1) . 239.

Microsoft Word with mouse (ver 1.1) .. 289.

Microstuf

Crosstalk XVI. 105.

Transporter (includes Crosstalk) . 169.

PCsoftware

PC Crayon II (new release) . 39.

Executive Picture Show. 139.

CREATABASE.see special

Peachtree

PeachPak Series 4 (G/L, A/R, A/P)

new version, IBM manuals . 195.

Peter Norton

Norton Utilities. 55.

Satellite Software

WordPerfect . call

Software Publishing

PFS/Access. 63.

PFS/File. 89.

PC Connection
Software Special

through September 31, 1984

We’re so confident you'll be pleased with
these programs, that we're offering to
buy them back if you return them within
30 days.

PCsoftware

Championship Blackjack

• Realistic casino action

• Works on monochrome display or in
full color on TV/RGB

• Up to 6 players (including your PC)

• Can be used for fun or to learn point

count statistics . $19.

CREATABASE

One of the few databases chosen by
PC Magazine’s "Project Database Re¬
view" (June 12, 1984) as “Would Buy".
Quoted as, "...should be the first file
management system a PC owner
buys." You can design your own

screen and report layouts. $39.

PFS/Graph . $89.

PFS/Write . 89.

PFS/Report . 79.

Softword Systems

MultiMate (w/spell checker & tutorial). .. call

Sorcim

Supercalc 3 . 199.

Virtual Combinatics

Micro Cookbook . 29.

Warner Software

The Desk Organizer . 197.

TRAINING

ATI

How to use Lotus 1-2-3 (volumes 1 & 2) 55.
How to use Wordstar (volumes 1 & 2).. 55.
How to use dBase II (volumes 1 & 2) .. 55.

How to use EasyWriter II . 55.

How to use Multiplan . 55.

How to use Your IBM-PC . 55.

How to use MultiMate . 55.

How to use Microsoft Word . 55.

How to use PC DOS . 55.

How to use TKI Solver . 55.

Individual Software

The Instructor . 35.

Professor DOS . 47.

Tutorial Set (both items above) . 75.

Professor Pixel . 47.

Typing Instructor . 39.

Scarborough Systems (was Lightning)
Master Type . 35.

EDUCATIONAL

Davidson

Speed Reader II (high school & college) 49.

Math Blaster (grades 1-6) . 35.

Word Attack (grades 4-12) . 35.

FriendlySoft

FriendlyWare/PC Introductory Set 35

Stone (requires graphics board)

Great graphics and sound

My Letters, Numbers, Words (ages 1 to 5j 29

Kids Stuff (ages 3 to 8) . 29

Across the U.S.A. (ages 5 & up) . 22

GAMES

Atarisoft

Centipede . $29.

Pac Man . 29.

Dig Dug . 29.

Defender . 29.

Donkey Kong . 29.

Biue Giant

Hoser . 25.

Broderbund

Apple Panic . 23.

Lode Runner . 25.

Funtastic

Snack Attack II (a favorite) . 27.

Cosmic Crusader (as good as above). . 27.

Big Top (climb to new levels) . 29.

Master Miner (1 or 2 players) . 29.

Hayden Software

Sargon III. 35.

Microsoft

Flight Simulator (new version) . 35.

Orion

J-Bird . 29.

PC-MAN . 27.

Paratrooper . 25.

Pits & Stones . 29.

Sir-Tech

Wizardry . 42.

Sublogic

Night Mission Pinball . 29.

HARDWARE

AST Research (For IBM-PC or XT)

All AST Boards come with Super Drive.
SuperSpool, and one year warranty.
SixPakPlus 64k upgradeable to 384k. with
clock calendar, serial and parallel ports

(game port optional) . 269.

MegaPlus ll_64k upgradeable to 256k (or
more with MegaPak) with clock calendar
and serial port (parallel, game, or second

serial port optional) . 269

M egaPak 128k (not upgradeable) . call

MegaPak 256k . call

I/O Pl us li with clock calendar and serial
port (parallel, game, or second serial

port optional) . 129.

Parallel. Game, or se c ond Serial Po rt

for any AST board (specify board) . 39.

Connectall connector bracket (PC only) .19.

AST-525J . 559.

ASI-3780 . 649.

MonographPlus with clock calendar, serial &

parallel ports ... 429.

Amdek

Video 300G Monitor (green) . 149

Video 300A Monitor (amber) . 159

Video 31OA Monitor (amber) . 179

Color II RGB Monitor . 399

CompuCabie

Plastic Keyboard & Drive Cover Set 17

* DEFECTIVE SOFTWARE REPLACED IMMEDIATELY. DEFECTIVE HARDWARE REPLACED OR REPAIRED AT OUR DISCRETION SOME ITEMS H.AVE WARRANTIES UP TO FIVE YEARS,
e COPYRIGHT MICRO CONNECTION. INC. 1984 ALL ITEMS SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE IBM IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF IBM CORP
MICRO CONNECTION IS A TRADEMARK OF MICRO CONNECTION, INC. PC CONNECTION IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK

to addon and dive in

IBM Mono Screen Enhancement . $17

Printer to IBM Cable (specify printer) ... 32.
Smartmodem to IBM Cable . 25.

Curtis

Low Profile Tilt & Swivel Pedestal

(for any monitor) . 44.

PC Pedestal (for IBM Mono or Color). .. 55
PCS or Quadchrome display adapter .. 9.

System Stand (holds PC vertically) . 21.

Extension Cables for IBM Mono Display 40.
Keyboard Extension Cable (3 to 9 feet). 32.

AC Plug Adapter (any monitor to your PC) 8.

Epson

RX-80 with GRAFTRAX-Plus . call

RX-80 FfT with GRAFTRAX-Plus . call

FX-80 with GRAFTRAX-Plus . call

RX-100 with GRAFTRAX-Plus . call

FX-100 with GRAFTRAX-Plus . call

LQ 1500 (letter quality dot matrix) . call

Printer to IBM Cable (specify printer ) ... 32.
Hayes

Smartmodem 300 . 209.

Smartmodem 1200 . 489.

Smartmodem 1200B (wISmartcom II) . 409.

Smartcom II . 99

Compucable's Smartmodem-to-IBM Cable

. 25.

Hercules Computer

Hercules Graphics Card (parallel port) . 339.
Hercules Color Card (parallel port) _ 179

IDS

Prism 80 Printer (v/ith all four options) . 1397.
Prism 132 Printer (v/ith all four options) 1597.
Prism to IBM Parallel Cable . .. 32.

key tronic

Deluxe keyboard (KB 5151) see special

Koala

Koala Touch Tablet v/ith software
(connects to game port) . 89

Kraft

Joystick. 39.

Maynard Electronics

Floppy Drive Controller . 165.

Internal Hard Disk (10 Meg), WS-1 Controller

& ROM for PC mother board . 989.

Internal Hard Disk (10 Meg), WS-2 Controller

& ROM for PC mother board . 1169.

Mouse Systems

PC Mouse (w/software & desk pad). .. 197.

NEC

Spinwriter 3550 (IBM-PC compatible) . 1679.
Spinwriter 2050 (3550's little brother) .. 869.

Orchid Technologies

All Orchid Boards come with PCnet Drive
(Ram disk). PCnet spool (print spooling),
disk caching & partitioning.

Blossom Ok or Blossom 64k upgradeable
to 384k, with clock calendar, serial and

parallel ports . call

PCnet Daughter Boar d (piggybacks to
Blossom) with version 2.4 networking
software . call

Paradise Systems

MultiDisplay Card (color & mono) 379.

Plantronics/Frederick

COLORPLUS (wIColor Magic) .... call

PC Connection
Hardware Special

through September 31, 1984

key tronic

Deluxe 5151 keyboard

• Typewriter keyboard

• Has separate cursor and numeric
keypad (makes work with spread¬
sheets much easier).

• Has indicators on numlock, capslock,
and cursor pad LED key.

• Function keys are located at top of

keyboard along with 2 new keys
(pause and reset). $175.

LIFE IN THE PC FAST LANE

Our goal is to have what you want when you
want it. On those rare occasions when we tell
you we’re out of stock, it means one of several
things. The manufacturer is out of stock. A
new, favorable review has created heavy de¬
mand. An announced product is still unavail¬
able. Or, an updated version of the product is
on the way, and we have no intention of selling
an about-to-be-obsolete product (even if it
means losing a sale). Whatever the reason,
rest assured we’ll give as firm an availability
date as possible.

OUR POLICY

• We accept VISA and MASTERCARD.

• No surcharge added for charge cards

• Your card is not charged until we ship.

• No sales tax.

•All shipments insured: no additional charge.
•Allow 1 wk. for personal & co. checks to clear.

• COD max. $500. Cash or certified check.

• 120 day guarantee on all products.★

•To order, call us anytime Monday thru Friday
9:00 to 9:00, or Saturday 9:00 to 5:30.

SHIPPING

Continental US: For monitors, printers, and
drives, add 2% to all orders. For all other items,
add $2 per order for UPS surface, $3 per order
for UPS 2nd-Day-Air. We particularly
recommend 2nd-Day-Air if you live west of the
Mississippi or south of Virginia. In most cases it
will only add $1 to your cost and will save you
up to four days on delivery time. UPS Next Day
Air also available Outside Continental US:
We add freight charges to credit card pur¬
chases. For prepayment, call 603/446-3383
for information.

1 - 800 / 243-8088

PC Connection 285T

6 Mill St.. Marlow. NH 03456
603 / 446-3383

For the IBM-PC Exclusively.

CIRCLE NO. 182 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Princeton Graphics

HX-12 RGB monitor (690 x 240)) . call

SR-12 RGB monitor (690 x 480) . call

MAX-12 Amber monochrome monitor .. call

Quadram

We are a full line Quadram Dealer

New Expanded Quad board 64k
expandable to 384k. with clock calendar,
parallel, serial & game port, I/O bracket,

and Quadmaster software. $269.

Microfazer Printer Buffer (parallel) w/copy

MP 64 (64k) upgradable to 512k . 197.

Quadcolor I . 197.

SMA(Systems Management)

PC-Documate Keyboard Templates

available for:

DOS/Basic 1.1
DOS/Basic 2.0
Lotus 1-2-3
dBase II
Easywriter II
Wordstar ...
TG

Multimate
Multiplan (IBM)
Multiplan (Microsoft)
Peachtext 5000
Volkswriter
.(each)12.

Joystick . 45.

USI (monitors for graphics board)

Pi-2 Monitor (12“ green, with cable) ... 119.
Pi-3 Monitor (12" amber, with cable) .. 129.

DRIVES

All drives are completely pre-tested. Specify
Drive A or Drive B for your PC. Comes with
complete step by step installation instructions.
Drives are 320K/360K.

Tandon

TM 100-2 (5 Va") full-height drive (DS.DD) 199.

TEAC

FD-55B (5 Va^) half-height drive (DS.DD)
Free y cable & bracket with each pair. 169.

MEMORY

64k Memory Upgr a de Set for IBM-PC or

XT system board.. ’. 59.

64k Memory Upgrade Set for any memory

board specify make of board . 59.

Install memory upgrades & run diagnostics
at time of board purchase only . 10

DISKS

Verbatim (with 5 year guarantee)

Datalife Disks SS/DD plastic box of 10 .. 23
Datalife Disks DS/DD plastic box of 10 .. 33

Disk Drive Analyzer.25

Flip Sort (holds 75 disks) .19

INFORMATION SERVICES

Compuserv

Compuserv Information Service
includes subscription manual, 5 hours of
connect time, & monthly publications ... 29

Source Telecomputing

The Source (subscription & manual) .... 59

Put the Power
ofthelBM PC
Bus into\bur
OEM Svstem

ISus

SYSTEMS

9235 Chesapeake Drive
San Diego, CA 92123

IBM PC is a trademark of IBM Corporation

NEW Single Board

Bus System

The power of the IBM PC is
now available to OEM system
designers with the new I-Bus
Single Board Computer
and Enclosure
systems. Now you
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control, and every
other imaginable task.

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packaged Intel’s powerful
new 80188 CPU into a Single
Board Computer. It has
64K of RAM and up to 160K
of ROM on board, plus a serial
console port to talk to a terminal
or a PC. Just plug the SBC into an
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cage and you have the heart
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ready to run.

then download them to the I-Bus
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Modular PC bus packaging matches your
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9-slot.

Best of all, the IBM PC works
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and test applications
programs on the PC,

CIRCLE NO. 277 ON READER SERVICE CARD

EPSON.COM simplifies printer initialization

Douglas Ritari

One such solution is provided by EPSON.
COM, a small, efficient utility program that,
in addition to being easy to use, is only 281
characters long (see listing 1). The program was
designed around the Epson MX-80 command
protocol, because of the Epson's widespread
popularity and near-compatibility with the
IBM graphics printer. It will work with any
printer, however, because of a hexadecimal
input mode that allows any set-up character
sequence to be sent to any printer. See table 1
for a summary of the segments, groups, and
symbols used in the EPSON.COM program.

Douglas Ritari is an information resource manager for
St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company in St. Paul.
He functions as a systems analyst who specializes in
microcomputers and office automation.

U sers of the IBM PC are blessed by having
access to the variety of sophisticated
printing features offered by the new intelli¬
gent dot-matrix printers. Many different print
fonts and densities are available. Few of the
printers offer an easy method of switching to
these different control modes, however,- conse¬
quently, many of the optional fonts that are
available are used only infrequently.

The most common way of initializing a
computer printer is through the use of the
BASIC/BASICA language on the PC. These
programs take up considerable space on a dis¬
kette (15,000 to 25,000 characters—especially
if they are put only on diskettes) and are not
easy for an inexperienced person to use.
Clearly a better solution is needed.

September i984

EPSON.COM

Program Operation

The simplest way to activate the
program is to type ''EPSON/' When
no optional parameters are entered,
the printer is set for the double¬
strike and emphasized-print font. In
my opinion, this font produces the
best near-letter-quality print that
Epson-compatible printers can pro¬
duce. Optional parameters that may
be entered (by typing EPSON E T,
for example) are

E— Emphasized printing (char¬
acters are thicker than
usual)

D—Double-strike printing
(each character is printed
twice in the same place)

I— Italics

W— Wide-character printing (5
char/inch)

C— Compressed-character print¬
ing (17.16 char/inch)

T— Top-of-form command (ad¬
vances the paper to the top
of the next logical page on
almost all printers)

R— Resets the printer to its
power-up state (resets logi¬
cal top-of-page; eliminates
the need to turn the printer
off and on to reset)

U— Unidirectional printing (the
print head prints only from
left to right, instead of in
both directions; (although
slower, this produces the
best appearance)

/xx/— Hexadecimal input mode

("xx" represents paired hex¬
adecimal numbers that are
sent directly to the printer
as is, no spaces allowed)

All other characters are ignored;
spaces between parameters are op¬
tional (except in the hexadecimal
mode) with upper- and lower-case
letters being permissible. The Epson
can understand a greater number of
commands than this, but the list in¬
cludes most of the common ones.

Creating the Program

This program is intended to be as¬
sembled and run as a "COM" file

using any PC-compatible assembler.
COM programs are designed to run
within one segment and do not in¬
clude a stack segment. Because
there is no stack segment, a warning
message will be generated by the
linker when the program is run;
don't be concerned about the mes¬
sage, as this is normal when a COM
program is generated.

After linking the program using
the DOS LINK command, name it
EPSON.EXE. Now run the IBM

W hen no optional
parameteis are
entered, the

printer is set for the double-
strike and emphasized-
print font. In my opinion,
this font produces the best
near-letter-quality print
that Epson-compatible
printers can produce.

EXE2BIN command, which con¬
verts appropriately prepared .EXE
files to .COM format. After
EXE2BIN has been run, the disk
directory will contain a file named
EPSON.BIN. Simply rename this
file to EPSON.COM.

The .COM format, rather than
the .EXE format, was used to reduce
the program's size. The original ver¬
sion, which was an .EXE file, was
over 1000 characters long.

How It Works

The general logic of the program
follows these steps:

1. Save the contents of the DS regis¬
ter onto the stack to return con¬
trol to DOS when the program
completes (lines 34-37).

2. Set up the Indexing registers DI
and SI for movement of the pa¬
rameters entered from the Pro¬
gram Segment Prefix (PSP),
which is located at offset 80H
(lines 41-45).

3. Check the character count of the
parms that were entered. If the
count equals zero, no parms were
entered. Jump to the default rou¬
tine and send the printer the
control codes for double strike/
emphasized print (lines 49-53).

4. If the program has reached the
SEAR procedure, parms were en¬
tered (or perhaps an extra space
character was entered after the
EPSON command). Examine the
parm character and see if it was
entered as a lower-case letter. If
so, reduce its value by 32 to con¬
vert it to upper-case. Now begin
comparing this parm character to
the program options. If it is a "/"
character, toggle the hexadecimal
switch to send all valid hex char¬
acters directly to the printer un¬
til another "/" is found. If the
parm is an E-D-C-T-R-I-U-W,
jump to the appropriate routine
to process this code. This routine
continues until the count of
parm characters reaches zero.

The program then jumps to
PGMEND and ends (lines 65-88).

5. The PGMEND (program end)
procedure will sound the print¬
er's bell if unpaired hexadecimal
parms were entered. It also tests
to see if anything was printed
during the program. If not, the
DEFAULT routine sends empha¬
size/double strike. Then a return
command is executed to return
control to DOS (lines 152-172).

6 . The PASTHRU routine (lines
99-108) is used in conjunction
with the HEXMATH subroutine
(lines 199-210) to convert and
process parms into hexadecimal
numbers.

7. The ESCAPE subroutine is used
to send the escape character IbH
to the printer. Most of the prede¬
fined codes are initiated by send¬
ing first the escape character and
then the appropriate one or two
digits to do the print mode setup
(lines 176-183).

8 . The PRINTER subroutine is the
only routine in the program

PC Tech Journal

that actually sends codes to the
printer. When control passes to
PRINTER, all the work has been
done; the character to be printed
is already in the AL register. The
DOS interrupt 17H is then called
to process the print request.

Note-, there is no check to see if
the routine actually worked.
However, if the printer is off¬
line, no message to confuse in¬
experienced users will be gener¬
ated. The program will not crash
the system (lines 189-195).

9. Finally, the PARM_E through
PARM_W routines (lines 112-
146) process the predefined
Epson parms into appropriate
control codes. Note that the con¬
trol codes are "hard-wired"' into
these routines instead of being
placed in a common data area.
Again, this was done to save
space and to cut down the pro¬
gram size; it is not difficult to
change if the user wants to cus¬
tom configure this program for
another printer.

Using the Program

Use of the EPSON command is
fairly straightforward if considera¬
tion is given to a few idiosyncrasies
of the Epson printer and to the
housekeeping activities of certain
programs. First, be aware that cer¬
tain printing modes are incompati¬
ble with one another—for example,
trying to use emphasized and com¬
pressed type simultaneously with an
Epson printer will result in empha¬
sized font only. The EPSON.COM
program cannot help out here, as
the printer has the final say on
what it will and will not accept.

If in doubt as to which print
mode is currently operational, do a
reset (parm R) before issuing new
control codes. Consult the owner's
manual for these and other precau¬
tions if problems are encountered.

Another problem that might be
encountered with certain pro¬
grams—VisiCalc, for example—is
that when the user goes to the

YOUR CODE MAY BE WASTING ITS TIMEI
THE PROFILER™ CAN HELP . . .

• Statistical Execution Profiler • Time critical code optimization

• Works with any language • Abnormal code behavior tracking

• Completely configurable • Graphic presentation of results

• Up to 16 partitions in RAM/ROM • Easy to use menu interface

THE PROFILER is a software package which gives you, the programmer, a powerful
tool for locating time consuming functions in your code and allows you to performance
tune your program. With the THE PROFILER you can determine where to optimize
your code for maximum benefit, then measure the results of your efforts.

Using THE PROFILER, you can answer questions like:

Where is my program spending its time?

Why is my program so slow? What is it doing?

Is my progam I/O bound? CPU bound? Are data buffers large enough?

How much improvement did my changes make?

THE PROFILER is completely software based and consists of a system resident driver
and a monitor program. The memory partitions can range from 1 byte to 1 megabyte
in size and can be anywhere in the address space.

NO ADDITIONAL HARDWARE IS REQUIRED!

Requires an IBM PC or compatible system with a minimum
64k and one drive.

THE PROFILER is available for $175.00 from DWB
Associates or ask your software dealer. To order or for
more information, call or write DWB Associates. VISA/MC
accepted. Dealers welcome.

IBM is a trademark of IBM Corp. MSDOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corp.

THE PROFILER is a trademark of DWB Associates.

CIRCLE NO. 216 ON READER SERVICE CARD

CopyWrite
backs up all
IBM PC Software.

There are no exceptions. Copy-protected software is copied
readily. CopyWrite needs no connplicated parameters.
Requirements:

IBM Personal Computer or XT.

64k bytes of memory,
one diskette drive.

CopyWrite will run faster with more
memory or another drive.

CopyWrite is revised monthly, to keep up with the latest in copy
protection. You may get a new edition at any time for a $1 2 trade
in fee.

CopyWrite is available at a price of $50 US funds from:

Quaid Software Limited

620 Jarvis Street, Suite 2412
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4Y 2R8
Telephone (416) 961 -8243

dwb

Associate s

P.O. Box 5777
Beaverton, Oregon 97006

(503) 629-9645

September i984

CIRCLE NO. 194 ON READER SERVICE CARD

EPSON.COM

Segients and groups:

N a • e

Size

align

coibine class

HAIN.

0219

PARA

PUBLIC

’CODE’

Syibols:

N a • e

Type

Value

Attr.

BELEND ....

L NEAR

OIBC

HAIN

DEFAULT. . . .

L NEAR

01D5

NAIN

DIGITS ....

L BYTE

0106

HAIN

ESCAPE ....

N PROC

OlEl

HAIN

Length =000B

HEX.

L BYTE

0107

HAIN

HEXHATH, . . .

N PROC

01F9

HAIN

Length =0020

HATH2.

L NEAR

020C

HAIN

PARH.

L BYTE

0108

NAIN

PARH C . . . .

L NEAR

0188

HAIN

PARH D . . . .

L NEAR

0181

HAIN

PARH E . . . .

L NEAR

017A

HAIN

PARH I . . . .

L NEAR

019D

HAIN

PARH R . . . .

L NEAR

0195

HAIN

PARH T . . . .

L NEAR

018F

HAIN

PARH U . . . .

L NEAR

01A4

HAIN

PARH H . . . .

L NEAR

OIBO

HAIN

PASTHR2. . . .

L NEAR

0175

HAIN

PASTHRU. . . .

L NEAR

0165

HAIN

PSHEND ....

L NEAR

01C6

HAIN

PRINTER. . . .

N PROC

OlEC

HAIN

Length =000D

SEAR.

L NEAR

0124

HAIN

SEARBX ....

L NEAR

015A

HAIN

SEARCP ....

L NEAR

012E

HAIN

SEAREN ....

L NEAR

015C

HAIN

SIXTEEN. . . .

L BYTE

0104

NAIN

SSTART ....

L NEAR

0109

HAIN

START.

F PROC

0100

HAIN

Length =00E1

SNITCH ....

L BYTE

0103

NAIN

TESTPR ....

L BYTE

0105

HAIN

TOGGLE ....

L NEAR

015F

HAIN

Naming Severe

Errors Errors

0 0

TIHE==> 19:25:29.96

Table 1: Segments, Groups, and Symbols Used in EPSON.COM

dBASE ir&iir

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® REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ASHTON • TATE

CIRCLE NO. 164 ON READER SERVICE CARD

menu option to print something,
the program resets the printer. This
effectively wipes out any control
codes that may have previously
been established. Again, the EPSON
command will not help in this case.

Examples

Word processing can serve as an ex¬
ample of the use of EPSON.COM.
Assume that a user wants to pro¬
duce a document in italics. He's also
a little concerned about producing a

PC Tech Journal

■■ I

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Terms, conditions and prices differ in our store.
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BUSINESS SOFTWARE

ALPHA SOFTWARE

DATA BASE MANAGER II. $205.00

EXECUTIVE PACKAGE. 109.00

TYPE FACES. 89.00

ASHTON-TATE

dBASEIII. CALL

FRAMEWORK. CALL

CONTINENTAL

HOME ACCOUNTANT PLUS. 85.00

TAX ADVANTAGE. 45.00

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT. 319.00

ENERTRONICS

ENERGRAPHICS. CALL

FOX & GELLER

D. GRAPH/QUICKCODE/DIUTIL. CALL

GRAFOX. CALL

OZ. CALL

FRIENDLYSOFT

FRIENDLY WRITER . 60.00

HARVARD SOFTWARE

HARVARD PROJECT MANAGER. CALL

HAYES

SMARTCOM II. 95.00

INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE

TIM IV. CALL

I U S

ACCOUNTING AR/AP/GL ea. CALL

INVENTORY CONTROL. CALL

ORDER ENTRY. CALL

PAYROLL. CALL

EASY WRITER ll/SHELLER/MAIL .... 199.00

EASY FILER. 199.00

EASY PLANNER. 159.00

LOTUS DEVELOPMENT CORP.

LOTUS 1 -2-3. (NO MAIL ORDERS).. CALL
SYMPHONY (NO MAIL ORDERS) ... CALL

MICRO DATA BASE

KNOWLEDGE MAN. CALL

MICRO PRO

INFOSTAR. CALL

WORDSTAR. CALL

WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL. CALL

MICRORIM

R BASE 4000 . CALL

EXTENDED REPORT WRITER. CALL

CLOUT (RE8.256K). CALL

PROGRAM INTERFACE.?. CALL

MICROSOFT

MULTIPLAN. 129.00

WORD. CALL

MICROSTUFF

CROSSTALK. 105.00

NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS

MEMORY SHIFT. 69.00

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NORTON UTILITIES. 55.00

PC SOFTWARE

CREATABASE. 65.00

PEARL SOFT

PERSONAL PEARL. CALL

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PROKEY 3.0. 85.00

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TAX MODE. CALL

PLAN MODE. CALL

SOFTWARE ARTS

TK SOLVER. 269.00

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT. 85.00

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. 85.00

SOFTWARE SYSTEMS INC.

MULTIMATE. 279.00

DISK DRIVES

PEGASUS. CALL

QUMET142. CALL

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TANDON TM 100-2 . 200.00

MULTIFUNCTION BOARDS

64 RAM CHIPS. 55.00

AST CARDS. CALL

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ACROSS THE USA. 25.00

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ATTACK ON ALTAIR. 29.00

BIG TOP. 27.00

CONOUEST. 29.00

COSMIC CRUSADERS. 27.00

DEADLINE. 37.00

DIGGER. 29.00

THE EXTERMINATOR. 29.00

FLIGHT SIMULATOR-NEW VERSION .. 35.00

FRIENDLY ARCADE. 32.00

FRIENDLY PC INTRO SET. 32.00

FROGGER. 25.00

GORGON. 29.00

HIDE & SINK. 22.00

HI RES #4. 27.00

KID STUFF. 32.00

MASTER MINER. 27.00

MOON BUGS. 29.00

MY LETTERS. NUMBERS & WORDS ... 32.00

PC CRAYON. 39.00

PC TUTOR. 49.00

PLANET FALL. 39.00

SERPENTINE. 25.00

SNACK ATTACK. 27.00

SPINNAKER SERIES. CALL

SPYDER. 29.00

STYX. 29.00

SUSPENDED. 39.00

WITNESS. 39.00

WIZARDRY. 49.00

ZORK I, II, III. ea. 27.00

ZURAN DEFENDER. 25.00

ACCESSORIES

CURTIS PRODUCTS

DISPLAY PEDESTAL. 35.00

MONO CABLE. 38.00

KEYBOARD CABLE. 30.00

SYSTEM STAND. 17.00

KRAFT JOYSTICK. 39.00

HAYES MACH III JOYSTICKS. 45.00

KEYBOARD DRAWER. 75.00

MONITORS

AMDEK 31OA. $175.00

COLOR II +. CALL

PRINCETON GRAPHIC HX-12. 469.00

SR-12. CALL

ZENITH RGB MONITOR. 479.00

MODEMS

HAYES SMART MODEM. $205.00

HAYES SMART MODEM 1200. 489.00

HAYES SMART MODEM 1200B. 449.00

DISKETTES

DYSAN

5.5. /D.D. $24.00

D.S./D.D. 34.00

MAXELL

5.5. /S.D. 23.00

D.S./D.D. 33.00

VERBATIM (5 year warranty)

21144 HEAD/CLEAN KIT. 10.50

5.5. /D.D. 20.00

D.S./D.D. 30.00

WABASH (Lifetime Warranty)

D.S./D.D. 25.00

PRINTERS

DIABLO P32 D-MATRIX. CALL

DIABLO 630.$1699.00

DIABLO 630 TRACTOR FEED. 249.00

DYNAX DX-15 OR DX-25. CALL

PROWRITER F10 . 925.00

IDS PRISM 132 COMPLETE. 1499.00

OKIDATA 92P. CALL

93P. CALL

84P. CALL

TOSHIBA P1351 . 1499.00

EPSON FX SERIES. CALL

NEC 3550. CALL

PRINTER CABLE/PARALLEL. 25.00

CIRCLE NO. 183 ON READER SERVICE CARD

callTOLL free 800-221-0343 JlSf'ls^a RegTstered IN NEW YORK callI-212-730-8036

■ TERMS AND CONDITIONS -

We reserve the right to repair, replace or return to manufacturer for repair, all goods
acknowledged faulty or damaged on receipt by customer. Customer must call for Return
Authorization Number before returning any goods. Prompt attention will be given to all
damaged and faulty returned goods. Any goods returned for credit are subject to 10%
restocking charge, plus shipping charge. No returns for credit on any software. Customer
must deal with the manufacturer directly if the customer finds any false claims made by

the manufacturer. All goods are shipped U.RS. only. Add 2% of price, or minimum of $3.00 for
shipping. Shipping charges on Printers & Accessories vary. We do not ship C.O.D. Please
allow one to two weeks for personal or corporate checks to clear. To expedite shipping send
money order, certified cashier’s check, or charge to your VISA, MasterCard, WE DO NOT
Add a Service Charge For Credit Card Usage. Prices subject to change without notice.
NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS.

EPSON.COM

good, solidly black type font, be¬
cause his ribbon is getting old and
worn. Therefore, using the parame¬
ters that produce double-strike and
italics, he enters

EPSON ID (producing
italic/double-strike)

Or perhaps the user wants to ad¬
vance the paper to the top of the

page and enter the WIDE print
mode for a memo for the office bul¬
letin board. He types in

EPSON t r w (producing
Top-of-form/Reset, just to
be safe/Wide)

Note that the spaces between the
parameters and the lower-case let¬
ters did not affect the program.

Finally, let's imagine that a user
decides to single-sheet feed the
printer, but the "paper out" sensor
keeps disabling the printer as he
gets halfway down the page. The
command to disable the paper-out
sensor is not one of the predefined
parms; however, the hexadecimal
input option will still save the day.
The Epson manual says that the (es¬
cape) sequence followed by an "8"
will disable the paper-out sensor.
This translates into lb38 in hexa¬
decimal numbers. Therefore, the
user should type in

EPSON/1B38/

and the paper-out sensor will be dis¬
abled until the printer is turned off
or reset. Note that no spaces are al¬
lowed between the slashes and that
only valid hex numbers 0-9 and A-
F are allowed. (Epson-compatible
printers will BEEP at you if un¬
paired or illegal numbers are en¬
tered). However, additional parame¬
ters may be entered before or after
the slashes to advance the paper or
set any predefined character font.

To further simplify the process
of entering hexadecimal characters
(it's hard to remember many hex
numbers), create a one-line batch
file that will do the work for you.
For example, a batch file entitled
"DISABLE.BAT" could contain the
preceding command and could be
executed simply by typing "DIS¬
ABLE." Also, the AUTOEXEC.BAT
file could contain the appropriate
commands to automatically ini¬
tialize the printer upon startup.

Conclusion

The EPSON DOS command has
been of great help to me and to
other PC users over the past six
months, both on Epsons and on a
variety of other printers that are
used in the office. With imagina¬
tion and the printer manual, the
possible uses for this program are
nearly unlimited. Who knows,
maybe it will even do graphics.

Screen Displays. Fast and Easy!

Blaise Computing presents
VIEW MANAGER’^-a screen
programming system for the IBM
personal computer and hardware
compatibles. VIEW MANAGER’"
speeds the creation, documen¬
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VIEW MANAGER’" lets you
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of programs carefully construc¬
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♦ Extensive control over the for¬
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images, and names and sizes
of all existing screens;

♦ A comprehensive library of
routines to include in your
programs allowing full ma¬
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VIEW MANAGER’".

All this adds up to a produc¬
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VIEW MANAGER’* is part of the
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development projects in C and
Pascal include:

TOOLS"—A library of routines for ad¬
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EXEC’"—A program chaining dis¬
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supporting a common data area $95

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(415) 540-5441

CIRCLE NO. 115 ON READER SERVICE CARD

PC Tech Journal

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PDV Driver Software 95

481 8748 Family Socket Adaptor 98

511 8751 Socket Adaptor 174

755 8755 Socket Adaptor 135

CABLE RS-232 Cable (specify gender) 30

HEXTRAN Universal HEX File Con¬
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other formats for downloading to de¬
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Also useful for examining object file,
changing load addresses, extracting parts
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Motorola, MOS, RCA, Fairchild, Tek¬
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PCDOS.$250

Ask about UNIX.

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XMAC68K supports Motorola standard
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written manual. XMAC682 for MK68200
has similar features.

Call us toll-free for some straight talk
about development systems.

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(in the U.S. Except Alaska and Hawaii)

VISA and Mastercard accepted. All popular disc formats now available
-please specify. Prices do not include shipping and handling •• call for exact
quotes. OEM INQUIRIES INVITED.

^Trademark of Digital Research ‘‘Trademark of Microsoft

AVOCET jT
SYSTEMS INC.

DEPT.

804 SOUTH STATE STREET
DOVER, DELAWARE 19901
302-734-0151 TELEX 457210

CIRCLE NO. 110 ON READER SERVICE CARD

EPSON.COM

Listing 1 EPSON.COM

NAME EPSON

PAGE 55,132

TITLE EPSON.COM

- DOUGLAS RITARI - 12/6/83

Itit******* ********* ****************************** ****** It******* ********

EPSON.COM

- Version

1.0 - Setup Utility for Epson Printer

by: Douglas

Ritari

DATE: December 6, 1983

**********************************************************************

IAIN SEGMENT

PARA PUBLIC ’CODE’

ORG

lOOH

START PROC

FAR

ASSUME

CS:MAIN

ASSUME

DS:MAIN

ASSUME

SS:MAIN

ASSUME

ES:MAIN

JMP

SSTART ;

iJUMP TO REAL START .OF PROGRAM

*************

INITIALIZE DATA VARIABLES ******************************

iWITCH OB

SWITCH FOR HEX V SEQ.- EITHER '0* OR 'FFH*

SIXTEEN DB

THE NUMBER ’IB’ USED IN HEX CONVERSION - MUL.

TESTPR DB

SWITCH TO TEST IF ANY OUTPUT WAS PRODUCED

DIGITS DB

NUM. OF HEX DIGITS PROCESSED - 'O' OR

HEX DB

HEXADECIMAL ACCUMLATOR

PARM DB

MOVE PARAMETER TO HERE - 1 BYTE AT A TIME

k********************************* **********************

BEGIN PROGRAM - SAVE RETURN ADDRESS TO DOS

***********■.**********************************************************

SSTART:

PUSH

OS ;

;SAVE PSP SEGMENT ADDRESS

MOV

AX,0

PUSH

AX ;

;SAVE RETURN ADDRESS OFFSET (PSP + 0)

.*************** move count of characters into PARM AREA **************

MOV

SI,80H

;S0URCE STRING OFFSET (WITHIN PSP)

MOV

DI,OFFSET PARM ;DEST. STRING OFFSET

CLD

;SET 'FORWARD' STRING OPERATIONS

MOVSB

DEC

;M0VE # OF PARMS ENTERED INTO 'PARM' VARIABLE

. ************

SET UP PARM FIELD'S POINTERS ****************************

MOV

AL.PARM

;PUT NUMBER OF CHAR. IN PARM IN AL REGISTER

MOV

CX.AX

;PUT NUMBER OF CHAR. IN PARM IN CX REGISTER

MOV

BX,OFFSET PARM ;P0INT TO PARMS BASE ADDRESS

CMP

CX,0

;WERE 'NO' PARMS ENTERED ?

SEAREN

;SEND DEFAULTS - NO PARMS - END PROGRAM

.^***************************************************1e**ic**i,************

; PARM(S) WERE ENTERED ■

- SEARCH FOR AND PROCESS PARMAMETERS

.**********************************************************************

SEAR:

MOVSB

DEC

;READ IN PARM FROM PROG. SEGMENT PREFIX

MOV

AL.CBX]

MOVE NEXT PARM TO INPUT REGISTER

CMP

AL,96

96 IS THE SMALL LETTER 'A'

SEARCP

DO 'NOT' MODIFY THIS LETTER IF LOWER THAN 'a'

AND

AL,223

REDUCE BY 32 - UNCAPS===> CAPS

SEARCP:

CMP

AL,'./'

HEX SEQUENCE BEGUN OR TERMINATED

TOGGLE

TURN ESCAPE SEQUENCE FLAG ON OR OFF

MOV

AH,0

CLEAR AH REGISTER

CMP

AH,SWITCH ;IS HEX SEQUENCE OFF ?

JNE

PASTHRU

PRINT CHAR.'S HEX VALUE IF,HEX SWITCH IS ON

CMP

AL,'E'

PARM TO 'EMPHASIZE' ?

PARM E .

PARM-E ROUTINE

CMP

AL,'0'

PARM TO 'DOUBLE-STRIKE' ?

PARM_D

JUMP TO PARM-0 ROUTINE

CMP

AL,'C'

PARM TO 'COMPRESS' ?

PARM C

JUMP TO COMPRESS ROUTINE

CMP

AL,'T'

PARM TO 'GOTO TOP-OF-FORM' ?

WE DO WINDOWS.

HAIM flENU DIRECTORY R:

1) DISPr-1 BACKUSI BAT

2) EKTE SELECT HASTER FILE | BASTEST BAS 5

IcWllJJ-' 1) CUST i - lEST EXE 5

41 PRIM liiajlMi! SELECT ACT!OH EST LST IZI

5) SYST 3) UEHD 1) ADD HEW RECORD EST HAP 4'

6) CHAH 4) DIPL . . .

- 5) SALE 3) DELECT PRODUCT MASTER RECORD

- 4) PERFOR

- PRODUCT HUMBER:123456

PROCUCT HAME: Inverted Tweaker

714 l»-27-83 8:

5128 9-15-83 1:

5128 11-87-83 10:
12032 11-07-83 9:

4992 11-07-83 10:

qUAirriTY OH HAHD: 10265
REORDER POIHT: 2000

or tijpe the ntuiker for thifraailgating
Press <EHTER> to select t^————«
Press <ESC> to exit froa this wenu.
Press ? for help with the highlighted ■

Use the up and down arrowIPRODUCT DESCRIPTIOH: Reverse aetaflange for
or t^pe the nuaker for thifraailgating bent borogoves.

Don’t just put your applications in windows—put windows in your
applications with VSI—the window manager.

VSI is a high-speed screen management tool. You can create up to 255
simultaneously active overlapping windows—large or small—for any
application program. Read to or write from any window and display them
with borders and user declared priorities. VSI is callable from any com¬
piled language and supports all color and monochrome video attributes.

Cut Development Time

VSI’s powerful primitives simplify your screen management chores
with a complete library of functions. And you can preview and edit your
screen layout before you actually program it
But that’s only the beginning.

Free Demo Disk

Our free hands-on demo disk will have you doing windows, too.

Return the coupon with $4.50 for postage and handling.

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^ develop software for 8086/8088 based machines and I want to do windows, too. ^

I I’m enclosing $4.50 for postage and handling Please send me your free demo I
disk. My business card is attached. (Offer expires December 31,1984)

VSI

CopvTifiht 1984 Amber Sy.stems. Inc

1 ('nmpiitpr

AMBER SYSTEMS, INC.

1171 S.Sunny\’ale-Saratoga Road

San Jose CA 95129
(408)996-1883

1 M.imi'

C'()mn,nnv

1 A(l(lris<;

, (’ilv

7ip

CIRCLE NO.

126 ON READER SERVICE CARD

PC Tech Journal

COMPILER

dBCDMRLER-

WORDTECH SYSTEMS P.O. Box 1747, Orinda, CA 94563 C415] 254-0900

WordTech Sysfcms is proud to announce the firs|^)mpiler for
dBASEII®.

-INDEPENDENCE—-

Now you can write compiled, efficient programs that will execute
independently of dBASE II, and without RunTime®.

-NO LICENSE FEES-

You only buy dB ('ompiler™ once. You ma\' compile as mam’
applications as you wish, FOREVER, with no additional fees.

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. Application programs are compiled into low level code and only
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Compilation is far better than encryption for protecting your
programming insights and procedures.

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Using dB Compiler’s cross-linkers you can use one development
system to generate code for various target environments.

Suggested retail price: $750; additional target modules: $350

ORCLE NO. 1(1 ON READER SERVICE CARD

-PRESENTING-

The first compiler for dBASE E

dBASE II, RunTime® Ashton-Tate

Illlllllllltl

EPSON.COM

PARM T

JUMP TO TOP-OF-FORM ROUTINE

CMP

AL.'R'

PARM TO 'REINITIALIZE PRINTER' ?

PARM R

JUMP TO RESET ROUTINE

CMP

AL,*r

PARM TO SET 'ITALIC CHAR. ?

PARM I

JUMP TO ITALICS ROUTINE

CMP

AL.’U'

PARM TO SET 'UNI-DIRECTIONAL' PRINT MODE

PARM U

JUMP TO 'UNI-DIRECTIONAL' ROUTINE

CMP

AL, • W •

PARM TO SET 'WIDE' PRINT MOOE ?

PARM W

JUMP TO WIDE ROUTINE

SEARBK: LOOP

SEAR

LOOP BACK FOR OTHER PARMS

SEAREN: JMP

PGMEND

JUMP END-PROGRAM PROCEOURE

;********* BACKSLASH TOGGLES HEXIOECIMAL INPUT MOOE ON/OFF

; TOGGLE THE

HEXADECIMAL INPUT PROC.-OFF===>ON - OR 0N==

==>OFF

TOGGLE: NOT

SWITCH

JMP

SEARBK ;

iRETURN TO PARM SEARCH PROCEDURE

.********** gojj POP y/^LIO HEXIOECIMAL NUMBERS ************************

PASTHRU: SUB

AL,30H

CONVERT FROM ASCII REPRES. TO REAL

. NUMBERS

BELEND

END PROGRAM IF WRONG PARM - SOUND

BELL

CMP

AL.9

CHECK FOR DIGIT > 9

JBE

PASTHR2

VALID NUMBER - JUMP TO MATH ROUTINE CALL

SUB

AL,7

CONVERT FROM ASCII REPRES. TO HEX

DIGITS

A-F

BELEND

END PROGRAM IF WRONG PARM - SOUND

BELL

CMP

AL.OFH

CHECK FOR DIGIT > '15' HEX

BELEND

END PROGRAM IF WRONG PARM - SOUND

BELL

PASTHR2: CALL

HEXMATH

CONVERT INPUT PARM TO HEX-NUMBER

JMP

SEARBK

RETURN FOR NEXT PARM

;******** PRE-

•DEFINED EPSON PRINTER PARMS PROCEDURE *******************

PARM E: MOV

AL,45H ;

;CODE FOR 'EMPHASIZED' FONT

CALL

ESCAPE

JMP

SEARBK

PARM D:

MOV

AL.47H ;CODE FOR 'OOUBLE-STRIKE' MOOE

CALL

ESCAPE

JMP

SEARBK

PARM C:

MOV

AL.OFH ;CODE FOR 'COMPRESSED' FONT

CALL

PRINTER -.COMPRESSED MODE DOES 'HOT' NEED PRE-ESCAPE SEQ

JMP

SEARBK

PARM T:

MOV

AL.OCH ;COOE TO 'ADVANCE PAPER TO TOP-OF-FORM'

CALL

PRINTER ;FORM-FEED TO TOP-OF-FORM DOESN'T NEED ESC.

JMP

SEARBK

PARM R:

MOV

AL,40H -.CANCEL ALL MODES/RESET LOGICAL TOP-OF-FORM

CALL ESCAPE

JMP

SEARBK

PARM I:

MOV

AL.34H ;CODE FOR 'ITALICS' FONT

CALL

ESCAPE

JMP

SEARBK

PARM U:

MOV

AL.55H -.TURN ON UNI-DIRECTIONAL PRINT MOOE

CALL

ESCAPE

MOV

AL.l ;COOE TO SET UNI-DIRECTIONAL 'ON-

CALL

PRINTER

JMP

SEARBK

PARM W:

MOV

AL.57H -.CODE FOR 'PERMANENT DOUBLE-WIDE' FONT

CALL

ESCAPE

MOV

AL.l ;CODE TO SET WIDE 'ON'

CALL

PRINTER

JMP

SEARBK

**************4

' END OF PROGRAM PROCEDURE *****************************

RESTORE CONTROL TO DOS - END OF PROGRAM

8ELEND:

MOV

CALL

DIGITS,0

AL,07H

PRINTER

CLEAR 'UNPAIRED DIGITS* HEX CHECK

BAD PARMS IN PROGRAM - SOUND BELL
PROGRAM ENDED WITH ERRORS!

PGMEND:

CMP

DIGITS,0

WAS 'UNPAIRED' HEXCODES ENTERED?

ONE

BELEND

SOUND BELL TO SIGNAL ERROR

CMP

TESTPR.O

DEFAULT

NO OUTPUT WAS PRODUCED - SEND DEFAULT

RET

;RETURN TO DOS - END OF PROGRAM.

**********************************************************************

NO PARMS WERE ENTERED - DEFAULT SETTING OF DOUBLE-STRIKE/EMPHASIZE

DEFAULT: MOV AL,47H ;PUT 'DOUBLE-STRIKE* CODE IN OUTPUT REGISTER
CALL ESCAPE

MOV AL,45H ;PUT 'EMPHASIZE* CODE IN OUTPUT REGISTER

CALL ESCAPE

JMP PGMEND ;JUMP TO END-OF-PROGRAH ROUTINE

START ENDP

********** escape subroutine - SEND ESCAPE CODE TO PRINTER ***********

ESCAPE

PROC

PUSH

MOV

NEAR

AL.18H

SAVE POTENTIAL CHAR. TO BE PRINTEO ON STACK

MOVE ESCAPE CHAR.(IBH) TO OUT REG.

CALL

PRINTER

CALL PRINTER SUBROUTINE

POP

GET CHAR. TO BE PRINTEO FROM STACK

CALL

PRINTER

CALL PRINTER OUTPUT ROUTINE

RET

RETURN TO CALLING SUBROUTINE

ESCAPE

ENOP

********* printer subroutine - ALL PRINTING IS DONE HERE *************
SEND CHARACTER IN AL REGISTER TO PRINTER

PRINTER PROC NEAR

MOV TESTPR.l ;VALIO OUTPUT HAS BEEN PRODUCED

MOV

DX,0

;SET REGISTER FOR PRINTER OUTPUT

INTERRUPT

MOV

AH,0

;SET REGISTER FOR PRINTER OUTPUT

INTERRUPT

INT

17H

;CALL PRINTER DRIVER IN BIOS

RET

;RETURN TO CALLING SUBROUTINE

PRINTER ENDP

********* CONVERT INPUT PARMS TO HEXIDECIMAL NUMBERS *****************

HEXMATH PROC NEAR

CMP DIGITS,0

ROUTINE TO CONVERT PARM TO HEX NUMBERS
0===> 1ST 1 - !===> 2ND #

JNE MATH2

MUL SIXTEEN

MOV HEX.AL

JUMP & PROCESS 2ND #

MULTIPLE 1ST # BY 16

CLEAR & STORE RESULT IN 'HEX'

INC DIGITS

RET

MATH2: ADD AL.HEX

1ST NUMBER PROCESSED

RETURN TO PASTHRU ROUTINE

TOTAL THE TWO HEX DIGITS

MOV DIGITS,0

CALL PRINTER

RET

CLEAR DIGIT VARIABLE FOR FUTURE PARMS

SEND HEX # IN *AL* REGISTER TO PRINTER
RETURN TO PASTHRU ROUTINE

HEXMATH ENDP

.**********************************************************************

MAIN- ENDS

END START

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CIRCLE NO. 178 ON READER SERVICE CARD -

September i984

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PC Tech Journal

OKIDOKK

FROM PC
TOOKIIMA84

Jeff Garbers

A program that translates the PC's codes for line-drawing characters
into language the Okidata 84p can understand

S ometimes a printer and a personal comput¬
er don't speak quite the same language. An
example of this problem occurs with the Oki¬
data Microline 84p printer when it is used
with an IBM PC or compatible. The Oki 84p
has become a popular alternative to the IBM
Dot Matrix and Graphics Printers. It is rea¬
sonably priced, quick, and offers an attractive
correspondence-quality mode as well as other
useful features. Unfortunately, it was not
originally designed to work closely with the
PC, so its graphics character set is quite differ-

/eff Garbers is director of product development for
Microstuf, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia. He is coauthor of
Crosstalk XVI.

ent from the de facto standard established by
IBM. What the PC displays as a solid vertical
bar (character 179) comes out looking Japa¬
nese on the Oki. For a vertical bar, the Oki
uses character 150, which would be displayed
by a PC as an "O" with a circumflex.

Since the codes are not compatible, at¬
tempting to print any of the PC's non-ASCII
characters results in a print-out that is dis¬
tracting at best and unreadable at worst. The
situation is especially annoying when print¬
ing screen dumps of programs that use the
PC's line-drawing characters to form boxes or
pictures on the screen. Checking the Oki
manual reveals that the printer can print
most of the necessary characters without

September i984

OKI Dokey

having to revert to complex graph¬
ics-printing procedures—it's just
that the codes are different. All that
would be necessary to fix things is a
program to translate the PC's codes
into the Oki's codes as the docu¬
ment is printed.

X20KI, the program presented
in listing 1, does just that. It inter¬
cepts any calls to the IBM BIOS

parallel printer routine, checks to
see if the character to be printed
should be translated, and does the
translation if it can. This version of
the program supports only the line¬
drawing characters, but it could
easily be expanded to do more. The
program is well suited for modifica¬
tion and can serve as a base for
interesting projects. (For instance, it

could be used as an example by pro¬
grammers wishing to develop a rou¬
tine that would translate codes for
printers other than the Oki 84p.)

Using the Program

The IBM Macro Assembler is re¬
quired to assemble this program.

Use an editor to type it in (leave out
the comments if desired) and give it
the name X20KI.ASM. Assemble
and link it with the following steps
(this article assumes that the pro¬
grammer has MASM.EXE,
LINK.EXE, and EXE2BIN.EXE):

MASM X20KI;

LINK X20KI; <-wiII produce
a warning error
EXE2BIN X20KI X20KI.COM
DEL X20KI.EXE
DEL X20KI.0BT

This routine will result in a run¬
nable X20KI.COM, which the user
may wish to put on his boot disk
and then incorporate into his
AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If errors are
encountered at any step in the as¬
sembly process, don't continue,- go
back, edit the source code, and start
again. The only error to ignore is
the warning error after the link
step—that's perfectly normal.

To start the program, type
X20KI. The program will announce
that it is installed and running. To
toggle the translation feature (if, for
example, the Okidata's graphics
features are needed), type X20KI
again; the program will activate or
deactivate (as appropriate) and will
display its current status. The pro¬
gram has been tested and used ex¬
tensively on the author's own sys¬
tem, but no guarantees are made as
to its usefulness with any particular
configuration of PC and printer.

Special Techniques

X20KI is extensively commented,
but there are a few notions that
need special attention:

Borrowing the Interrupt
Vector. Notice that when X20KI
first starts up, it stores the address of

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CIRCLE NO. 201 ON READER SERVICE CARD

PC Tech Journal

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CIRCLE NO. 230 ON READER SERVICE CARD

.IS

-S4

Oki Dokey

the old INT 17H handler away for
its future use. When its own work
is complete, it calls the old handler
before returning to its own caller.
This technique is often referred to
as "borrowing" the interrupt vector.
In contrast, a program is said to
"steal" the interrupt vector when it
handles the interrupt itself and
either returns directly to its caller

or jumps off to a fixed position in
the ROM BIOS, often leaving a pre¬
viously installed caller out in the
cold. Programs that steal interrupt
vectors—especially the video, key¬
board, and timer-handling vectors—
are one of the major causes of in¬
compatibility between different soft¬
ware packages. Obviously, stealing
is to be avoided. The borrowing

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technique, if used properly, allows
"chaining" of handlers and will
help to ensure future usefulness.
Using a Scan Table. There are
two common ways of performing
character translation: using look-up
tables and using scan tables. With a
look-up table, the program subtracts
some constant value from the in¬
coming character so as to make it an
"offset" into a predefined table; for
example, a program might subtract
65 from an alphabetic character to
translate A to zero, B to 1, etc. The
program then uses one of the 8088's
indexed addressing modes to pick
up the desired outgoing character
from the table, as in the following
code fragment:

sub al, 65 ; change 'A' TO 0,

/B' to 1, etc.

mov bl, al ; we will use BX
;as our offset
mov bh, 0 ; high half is

;always zero

mov al, TABL£[bx] ; pick up
;the desired value

Look-up tables are appropriate
when speed is a concern or when
many of the characters in a particu¬
lar range need to be translated.

Neither of these cases is appro¬
priate in X20KI —the speed is going
to be limited by the printer's output
capability anyway, and the program
can handle only a few of the possi¬
ble characters. The scan table ap¬
proach is therefore used instead. In
this method, there are two "paral¬
lel" tables—one containing codes
for incoming characters that need to
be changed and the other contain¬
ing the desired outgoing characters.
The program scans the table, and if
it finds a match, the value at the
same offset in the other table is
picked up and used. See listing 1 for
an example of this process.

End but Stay Resident.

When a program finishes, DOS
usually frees up the memory it used
so that memory is available to other
programs. The user would run out
of memory quickly if this were not

CIRCLE NO. 171 ON READER SERVICE CARD

PC Tech Journal

“In the art
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CIRCLE NO. 268 ON READER SERVICE CARD

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An Unsolicited Comment from
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Ok! Dokey

the case. X20KI, however, needs to
"'stay resident" in memory so it is
always ready for use. Otherwise,
when a printer interrupt happens, if
the handler has been overwritten by
a subsequently loaded program, the
system will crash.

Most programs stop with an
INT 20H, which lets DOS free up
the memory they used. X20KI, how¬
ever, ends with an INT 27H. This
is a special method of exiting that
informs DOS that part of the pro¬
gram that is about to stop needs to
stay resident. It's described (briefly)
in the DOS manual. Notice two spe¬
cial aspects of the way X20KI uses
this function:

1. The INT 27H is used only the
first time the program is run. Other¬
wise, every time the user typed
"X20Kr' another slice of memory
would be used up. The logic that
lets X20KI determine if it has been
run before is shown in listing 1.

2. X20KI doesn't keep more code
resident than it has to. The label
LAST marks the last location in
X20KI that needs to stay resident.
Everything after LAST is "tran¬
sient" and can safely be flushed
from memory when the program is
done running.

Trying to use printers other
than IBM's with the IBM PC can be
frustrating and time-consuming.

The program presented here should
help programmers solve their trans¬
lation problems and allow them to
print what they want to print, l""—I

Okidata Plug 'N Play Compatibility

F or people who have an Okidata
ML92 or ML93 and who want
IBM compatibility without program¬
ming, Okidata offers the Plug 'N
Play interface kit for $49. These two
replacement PROMs are installed in
the printer's control circuit board,
and the resulting Okidata-cum-IBM-
Graphics printer has a combination
of features from both printers. Corre¬
spondence quality printing, propor¬
tional spacing, and 160 CPS data pro¬
cessing mode are added to the IBM
Graphics printer's repertoire. Regret¬
tably, some standard Okidata fea¬
tures—notably, downline loadable
character generation and printing at
12 and 6 CPI—are made unusable.

All of the Graphics printer's
character spacing commands and
printer modes, including bit-mapped
graphics, are accepted by the Okida¬
ta, but their implementations differ
slightly in a few cases. Character set
1 is completely supported. In charac¬
ter set 2, all of the Greek and Span¬
ish characters, the mathematical
symbols, and the graphics symbols
are supported, but the card suit
shapes (ASCII decimal codes 03-06)
and some foreign characters (ASCII
decimal 129 and 131-159) are not.

Underlining on the Okidata is
continuous; the Graphics printer
does not underline between words.
The Okidata is designed for line
spacing in increments of 1/72-inch
or 1/144-inch, not 1/216-inch like
the IBM Graphics printer. In order
to approximate 1/216-inch spacing,
the Okidata multiplies the number
given in the Esc 3 or Esc I commands
by 2/3 and uses 1/144-inch spacing.
Because of rounding errors, there can
be a slight gap or overlap in printed
lines if the original number is not
evenly divisible by 3.

Many programs, especially word
processors, ask the user to indicate
the type of printer that is being used.
Once the Plug 'N Play Kit is in¬
stalled, the user should specify the
IBM Graphics printer, not the Okida¬
ta. Accompanying documentation
provides additional instructions for
inserting printer commands in Visi-
Calc, SuperCalc, WordStar, and Super
Writer.

An instruction booklet supplied
with the Plug 'N Play interface kit
contains complete and clearly illus¬
trated directions for installing the re¬
placement PROMs. The only tools
needed are a Phillips-head screw¬
driver and some marking tape. The
control circuit board containing the
PROMs is removed from its slot at
the rear of the printer; to do this,
seven connectors must be unplugged
from the circuit board. The marking
tape is used to label each connector
with its socket number in order to
make reinsertion easier. After the ex¬
isting PROMs are extracted, the re¬
placement PROMs are installed, the
circuit board is reseated, and the
playing begins.

Because the plugging process
takes about 15 minutes, switching
between the IBM Graphics printer
emulation and the pure Okidata
environment is not easy. Although
some of the Okidata ML92 and
ML93 features cannot be used with
the Plug 'N Play interface kit in¬
stalled, the replacement PROMs
yield a high degree of IBM compati¬
bility without any programming ef¬
fort, and with the associated benefits
that no user memory is dedicated to
a resident printer program and no
processing overhead is incurred in
translating codes.

—Julie Anderson

Listing 1: X20KI.ASM

***■»!** *********************************************** it******************

* This program traps the printer output interrupt (17H), and *

* translates outgoing IBM-style line drawing characters to codes *

* compatible with the Okidata 84p. *

* *

* Since the 84p doesn't fully implement all double-line characters, *

* we translate everything into single-line graphics. Other *

* graphics characters (hearts, happy faces, etc.) are not supported *

* in this program. *

* *

* The utility should be disabled prior to running any program (such *

* as Lotus 1-2-3) that depends on the Okidata graphics character *

* set or uses the Okigraph graphics printing facility. *

* USE: Giving the command "XZOKI" for the first time will install the *

* conversion utility and produce the report "X20ki installed and *

* running." Thereafter, giving the "X20ki" command will toggle the *

* translation feature off and on, reporting "X20ki temporarily *

* deactivated" or "X20ki reactivated." *

************************************************************************

CSEG segment para public 'CODE'

assume cstCSEG, dsrCSEG

; The printer interrupt number is defined by the PC to be 17H.

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*U\eETLINe L. IC
2O9AiOI0O E80D0O
209A:0103 e83AOO
209A;0106 7201
209A;010e C3
209A;0109 BA0003
209A:010C E84100
209A;010F C3
209As01l0 8B0E1C01
209A:0114 BF2001
209A:0117 B020
209A:0119 F3
209A:011A AA
209A2 0HB C3

CALL

RET

MOV

CALL

RET

MOV

REPZ

STOSB

RET

DX,Offset ERROR_MSG
PRINT_MSG

ERROR:

CX.CBUFLENJ

Dl,Offset BUFFER

AL.20

*D \BUFFER L t\BUFLEN3
209A:0120 4D 59 4C 53
209A20130 20 44 45 42

«7.7.DBUF

•D \BUFFER L C\BUFLEN3

«.DBUF

D \BUFFER L C\BUFLEN3
209A:0120 4D 59 4C 53 54
209A20130 20 44 45 42 55

4C 49 43 MYLSTAR SYMBOLIC
32 2E 30 DEBUGGER V 2.0

265D; OlOO MOV ov.ATQPiP
■JliOUSUiTTS MOV AXi C\TABLE3
26SDt0106 SUB AX,\TABLECBX]
265D;010A DB '.TABLE, >TABLE
265Dx010C
tUlOO L A
2650:0100 B80010
2650:0103 AlOOlO
2650:0106 2B870010

AX,Offset TABLE
AX,CTABLE3

AX,tBX+Offset TABLE3

Arguments like

source listing
Labels inserted

Indirection
implemented
(value currently
stored at
BUFLEN used)

Create Macros

Execute Macros

Even use symbols
with assemble —
command

Symbolic

parameter

accepted

Oki DOKEy

PRINTERJNTERRUPT equ 17H

; The signature word is an arbitrary 16-bit number that we'll use in
; checking to see if the utility has already been installed.

SIGNATURE

equ 0944H

; DOS is a handy macro that calls DOS for service. Its first argument
; is a function code number. The second one (if it's there) is

; assumed

to be an offset that needs to be loaded into OX.

OOSmacro

fen code, location arg

mov

ifnb

mov

end if

int

endm

ah, fen code

dx, offset location arg

21H

; A couple

of DOS function codes, defined.

PRINT MESSAGE equ 09H

SET VECTOR equ 25H

; Programs
; address

to be passed through the EXE2BIN utility need to
lOOH.

start at

org

lOOH ; goes thru EXE2BIN

; Since PC-DOS will always start us at lOOH, we need to do a jump
; right away to get around the data and interrupt-handling stuff
; and get right to the program initialization.

HOME: jmp START ; skip around all the data space

; Data areas for X20KI.

; BIOS_HANDLER contains the doubleword address which used to be the
; printer interrupt handler. We leave here through the old vector,

; so any other interceptors that may have been installed (spoolers,

; etc.) will still work properly.

BIOSJiANOLER dd ? , ; address of former int handler

; The translation tables. The first table (PGJCHARS) contains the
; IBM-defined codes for the single and double line box drawing
; characters. The parallel second table (0KI_CHARS) contains the
; Okidata 84p codes for those characters. Notice that the lines of
; the OKI CHARS table are quite similar; this is because PC double-
; line characters are translated to Oki single-liners.

; NllMBER_OF_CHARS just lets the assembler figure out how many of
; these we have to look through.

; In order to expand the conversion tables, just add codes to both
; tables as needed, making sure that you keep the order straight.

PC_CHARS equ this byte

db 218,194,191,195,180,192,193,217,196,179,197 ;sng boxes

db 201,203,187,204,185,200,202,188,205,186,206 ; dbl boxes
db 214,210,183,199,182,211,208,189,215 ; combinations

db 213,209,184,198,181,212,207,190,216 ; more combos

NUMBER_0F_

_CHARS

equ $-PC CHARS

OKI CHARS

equ

this byte

152,145,153,147,146,154,144,155,149,150,143

152,145,153,147,146,154,144,155,143

; An area to save the incoming character, which we need to preserve.

INC0MING_CHAR db ?

.hit-kit***************************************************************

; START OF X20ki CODE

.*******************************************************************

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Oki Dokey

MAIN proc far

; The lodged part. This translates Oki chars to our chars.

HANDLER: jmp short HANDLEl ; skip data

; Don't change that jump or put anything between here and the INSTALLED
; and ACTIVE variables. Later we assume that they come right after
; the start of the handler.

; The INSTALLED variable is just an instance of the signature word.

; We can check for the presence of this word to see if the driver
; has already been installed.

INSTALLED dw SIGNATURE

; ACTIVE is 1 if the utility is active. If it’s zero, we just pass
; characters right through and don’t do any conversion.

ACTIVE db 1 ; we are active

Watch for the use of the CS: override prefixes in here. When we
get control, the only segment register we know about is CS (the
Code Segment), so we’ll use it to check to see if we're running.

HANDLEl:

mov cs:INCOMING CHAR, al ; save incoming character

; There are three cases in which we want to do nothing here and just
; skip right out to the HANDLEdone location (which passes control
; off to the old BIOS handler). Those are:

; (1) Utility not currently active.

cmp cs:ACTIVE, 1 ; are

jnz HANDLEdone ; we’re not running

; (2) Request to BIOS is not a "please print character" call,

; but rather a status or other request.

or ah, ah

jnz HANDLEdone ; not a print call

; (3) The character to be printed has a value below 128, and

; therefore can’t be a line drawing character. Testing

; for this allows us to pass most of the printing

; characters through quickly without having to scan

the table.

test al, BOH

jz HANDLEdone ; not a graphics char

; Okay, we have a character we may wish to do something to. First,
; let's save a few registers.

pushf ; need to save this because

push es ; we’re going to mess with

push cx ; the direction flag during

push di ; our scanning.

; The following two-instruction sequence gets a copy of CS into
; the ES register. We will be scanning the table that exists in
; this segment,
push cs

pop es

; When scanning a table, you must:

; (1) Point ES:0I to the start of the table (we've already

; done ES)

mov di, offset PCJCHARS

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OKI Dokey

; (2) Set CX to the size of the table

mov CX. NUMBER_OF_CHARS

; (3) Set or clear the direction flag to indicate the

; direction of the scan (normally CLO)

cld

; Now everything is set up for the scan. Let's use the nice
; 8088/8086 instructions to do it. The one we're going to use will

; scan bytes until it finds a match, or until it runs out of table.
; The REPNZ prefix means "repeat this instruction while there isn't
; a match."

repnz scasb ; look it up

jnz HANDLEscanOone ; couldn't find it

; Now DI points one past the matching entry (remember that 01 is
; always adjusted, even if we find a match. We now need to convert
; 01 into an offset into the 0KI_CHARS table. Since we started 01

; at the offset of PC_CHARS, and since we're one beyond our match,

; we can subtract one more than our starting spot to find our offset
; into the 0KI_CHARS table. Messy? A little. Work it out on

; paper if you have trouble picking up on this notion.

sub di, offset PC_CHARS+T ; make it an offset

mov al, es:0KI_CHARS[di]

; Okay, either we've translated the character or we don't know how
; to translate it. Recover the registers we saved, and split out
; to the original BIOS handler.

HANDLEscanOone:

pop di

pop CX

pop es

popf

; Notice again the use of the CS override here. We have not used the
; OS register at all during this handler.

HANDLEdone:pushf ; must PUSH before manually

; calling an int. handler

call cs:BI0S_HANDLER

mov al, CS :INC0MIN6_CHAR ; recover original character codes

iret ; and return to caller

; Since we're going to be doing an end-but-stay-resident, we'll
; need to mark where the handler part ends. The label LAST will
; serve nicely.

LAST equ this byte ; last part of

; resident

. 1c******************************************************************

TRANSIENT PART of X20ki

; See text of article about the difference between the
; resident and transient parts of an interceptor program.

. *******************************************************************

START: push ds

xor ax, ax

push ax ; .COM programs start

; like this

; AX is already zero, and we want to look at an interrupt handler's
; address (which lives in segment 8000). So let's just move our
; zeroed AX into ES for snooping purposes. We'll set SI to 17H
; (the printer service interrupt) times 4 (the number of bytes in
; each handler address).

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OKI Dokey

mov

es, ax

si, PRINTER_INTERRUPT*4 ;

; point to

; installed address

; First, we'll get the address that's there

so we can call it later.

lods

mov

lods

word ptr es:[si]

word ptr BIOS_HANDLER, ax

word ptr es:[si]

mov

word ptr BI0S_HANDLER+2, ax

; We've now got the old handler in BIOS HANDLER. Pick it up as a

; 32-bit

pointer so we can see who's there.

les

si, BIOS HANDLER

; We know that if it’s our handler, there's
; bytes beyond the beginning of the handler

the SIGNATURE word two
(our handler starts

; with a

short jump). See if it's us, and

if it isn't, install us.

emp

word ptr es:[si+2], SIGNATURE ;

this us?

jnz

INSTALL

not yet--instal1 us

; Toggle the on/off setting. The ACTIVE flag lives four bytes beyond
; the handler—let's flop its setting.

mov

al, es:[si+4]

; pick up running flag

xor

al, 1

; flip the bit

mov

es:[si+4], al

; replace it

; Okay,
; our

we now have AL as the new

current state.

state. Give a message saying

mov

dx, offset m$RUNNING

; for now, assume it's running

emp

al, 1

; were we right?

MSG N SPLIT

; yes, take this

mov

dx, offset m$OFFNOW

; report "off"

; When we get here, DX is pointing to a status message. Print it
; and leave.

MSG_N_SPLIT: DOS PRINT_MESSA6E ; "print message" function

ret ; goodbye!

; If we get to this spot, it's the first time that the program has
; been run. Install our own handler into the interrupt vector,

; report this event with a message, and let DOS know we want to stay
; around.

INSTALL:

mov al, PRINTER_INTERRUPT ; printer interrupt, please

DOS SET_VECTOR HANDLER ; DOS function 25h is "set

; interrupt"

DOS PRINT_MESSAGE m$NOWREADY

; Everything's complete. Leave the program via INT 27H with DX
; pointing to the end of the resident part, and DOS will keep
; the important stuff around while freeing up the memory occupied
; by the part that's not part of the interrupt handler per se.

mov dx, offset LAST+1 ; point to the end of the

; fixed part

int 27H ; end-but-stick-around

; Three status report messages.

m$NOWREADY db "X20ki installed and running.$"

m$RUNNING db "X20ki reactivated.

m$0FFN0W db "X20ki temporarily deactivated.

MAIN endp

CSEG ends

end HOME

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New Release 1.8 — SOLID GOLD

CocleSmith'"-86

|B;fabcode.COM*

■CodeSmith-86"

Also runs on some IBM-PC Compatibles

PL ZR NC l\IV UP NA PE El

AX=8086

BX=D000

CX=0000

33=1983

03=1984

E3=1985

C3=2001

IP=0001

2001:0000

2001:0001

2001:0004

2001:0007

2001:0000

2001:000E

2001:0011

2001:0013

2001:0015

2001:0019

2001:0016

53
9BDEC2
BB3100

803E5E-

7305

BB0100

EB02

F2AB fflWH

80AD63-

240C

OJNIT:

BX ;TAG A LINE

8T(2),3T

BX,Offset VECTOR_TABLE_2

DOS_VERSION_MUM,T ;BREAKPOINT SET

TRA8H_IT

BX,Offset VECT0R,TABLE_1

3hopt L0NG_LABEL8_ARE_0K_A6_Y0U_LIKE

STOSW ;STBP 777th TIME

m CMP BOS-VERSION.

JAE TRA8H_IT

MOV BX,0ffset VECTOI

JMP 3hopt LONG.LAE

TRASH-IT: REPNZ STOSW

LONG LABEL3_ARE_0K_A8_Y0U_LIKE:

. LEA BP,WIERD_CODE

AND AL,00011100B

DB 69

;BREAKPOINT SET

iCHANGE RADIX

D08_VERSI0N_NUM

MEMORY

Absolute Address=03C9E 3 egment:Dffset=03C4:005E

'2I

41 53 43 49 49 20 53 55-50' 50 4F 52 54 20 M 20

20 20 20 20 43 6F 64 65-53 60 69 74 68- 20 38 36

20 40 41 4B 45 53 20 44-45 42 55 47 47 49 4E 47

20 41 20 42 4C 41 53 54-21 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

AGCII GUPPORT
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An excerpt from

Bluebook of Assembly Routines

for the IBM PC

S tring manipulation is an important part of computing that is useful in
text editing and database management. The assembly language rou¬
tines in this article are fundamental to both of these application areas.
The first two routines, called LOWERCASE and UPPERCASE, convert
characters within a string from upper-case to lower-case and from lower¬
case to upper-case. The next two—STRSEARCH and STRINSERT—each
require two input strings. STRSEARCH searches for a copy of one string in
another, and STRINSERT inserts a copy of one string within another.

Next are two routines—LEXSEARCH and LEXINSERT—that require a
string and a list of strings as input. These routines deal with lexigraphic-
ally ordered strings. Lexigraphical order is another name for alphabetical or¬
der. It is important to understand, however, that for these routines the indi¬
vidual characters are ordered according to their ASCII code. For example,
all upper-case letters precede lower-case letters. If lexigraphical ordering of
the words is desired, the routines can be changed so that all lower-case let¬
ters are converted to upper-case before being used in comparisons.

Editor's Note.- This is the third excerpt from Bluebook of Assembly Routines for the IBM PC,
a Waite Group book by Christopher L Morgan. (Morgan is also the author, with Mitchell
Waite, of 8086/8088 16-Bit Microprocessor Primer and Graphics Primer for the IBM PC.)

This book is part of the New American Library series of IBM PC computer-language books
that have been issued under the Plume/Waite imprint.

The first excerpt appeared in the March issue of PC Tech Journal and dealt with assem¬
bly routines to control the graphics capabilities of the IBM PC. In April, the second excerpt
was published; it concerned assembly routines to control sound on the IBM PC. —WF

September i984

111

THE NEWS
WEEKLY FOR
IBM SYSHM
MICRO
COMPOTERS

The first weekly newspaper designed to
give key executives the latest
IBM Personal Computer news and analyses—
as soon as it happens!

To keep your company in the
forefront of today’s rapidly changing
IBM Personal Computer technol¬
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Information that’s clearly written,
bringing you the news the way you
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PC WEEK.

PC WEEK is the first and only
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Personal Computer news—with the
latest breaking stories as they
develop.

PC WEEK follows and reports the
news—up to 48 hours before
publication—so you learn what’s
new when it’s new! You’ll find
research updates, strategic analysis,
new hardware and software
reviews, insights on future industry
concerns and controversies, and
the timely information you need to
help make you more productive and
efficient.

Every week you’ll find outstanding
features and departments
covering...

• NEWS: PC WEEK brings you
analytical reports on the
major topics of the day.
Product announcements and

company changes are ana¬
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Strings

LEXSEARCH searches for the
proper place to insert a string in a
lexigraphically ordered list of
strings, and LEXINSERT inserts a
string in the proper place in a lexi¬
graphically ordered list of strings.
LEXINSERT is built upon the ear¬
lier routines in that it calls
LEXSEARCH to find the proper
spot and then calls STRINSERT to
make the insertion.

The last three routines—COM¬
PARE, SWITCH, and BSORT-

work with string arrays. COMPARE
is used to compare two strings of
equal length. It enables the user to
compare two different entries of the
same string array. SWITCH is used
to switch two strings of the same
length—for example, two different
entries of the same string array.

Both of these routines are needed
by BSORT, which performs a bub¬
ble sort of a string array. Although
bubble sort is not one of the fastest
methods of sorting, it is easy to pro¬

gram, as is illustrated by the
BSORT routine. Because this rou¬
tine is written in assembly lan¬
guage, it runs quickly despite the
inherent slowness of the method.

These routines take advantage
of the 8088 string instructions.
Notice how easy string scanning
and comparing is when using these
string instructions; the COMPARE
routine has only one instruction
besides the PUSHes and POPs to
save the registers. imi—i

Listing 1 LOWERCASE

FUNCTION: This routine converts the characters
in a string to lower-case.

INPUT: Upon entry DS;BX points to a string. The
first two bytes in the string form a 16-bit integer
that specifies the length of the string. The remain¬
ing bytes contain the characters of the string.
OUTPUT: Upon exit all alphabetical characters of
the string are lower-case.

REGISTERS USED: No registers are modified.
SEGMENTS REFERENCED: Upon entry the
data segment must contain the string.

ROUTINES CALLED: None
SPECIAL NOTES: None
CODE:

; ROUTINE

TO CONVERT STRING

TO LOWER CASE

lowercase

proc far

push

; save registers

push

; get the

length

mov

cx,Cbx]

; first two bytes contain the length

Inc

; point to beginning of text

inc

; loop through the bytes of

the string

lowercasel:

mov

al.Cbx]

; get the character

cmp

al.'A*

; below the upper case characters?

lowercaseZ

; skip if so

cmp

al.'Z'

; above the upper case characters?

lowercaseZ ;

; skip if so

al.ZOh

1 OR bit 5 into the byte

lowercaseZ

mov

[bx],al ;

; store the character

inc

bx ;

; point to next character

loop

lowercasel

pop

ax ;

, restore registers

pop

ret

lowercase

endp

Listing 2 UPPERCASE

FUNCTION: This routine converts the characters
in a string to upper-case.

INPUT: Upon entry DS:BX points to a string. The
first two bytes in the string form a 16-bit integer
that specifies the length of the string. The remain¬
ing bytes contain the characters of the string.
OUTPUT: Upon exit all alphabetical characters of
the string are upper-case.

REGISTERS USED: No registers are modified.
SEGMENTS REFERENCED: Upon entry the
data segment must contain the string.

ROUTINES CALLED: None
SPECIAL NOTES: None
CODE:

; ROUTINE TO CONVERT STRING

TO UPPER CASE

uppercase

proc far

push

; save registers

push

; get the length

mov

cx,[bx]

; first two bytes contain the length

inc

; point to beginning of text

inc

; loop through the bytes of

the string

uppercasel:

mov

al.Cbx]

; get the character

cmp

al.'a'

; below the lower.case characters?

uppercase?

; skip if so

cmp

al.'z'

; above the lower case characters?

uppercase? ;

; skip if so

and

al,5Fh

; mask out bit number 5

uppercase?:

mov

Cbx],al

; store the character

inc

; point to next character

loop

uppercasel

pop

; restore registers

pop

ret

uppercase endp

September i984

113

Strings

Listing 3 STRSEARCH

FUNCTION: This routine searches for a copy of a
source string within a destination string.

INPUT: Upon entry DS;BX points to a source
string and ES:DX points to a destination string. Each
string begins with a 16-bit integer that specifies the
length of the string.

OUTPUT: Upon exit AL contains a return flag
(0=not found, OFFh=found)— and if the search
was successful DX contains the location of the first
byte of the match in the destination.

REGISTERS USED: Only AX and DX are modi¬
fied. They are used for output.

SEGMENTS REFERENCED: Upon entry the
data segment must contain the source string, and
the extra segment must contain the destination
string.

ROUTINES CALLED: None
SPECIAL NOTES: None
CODE:

; ROUTINE TO SEARCH FOR ONE STRING WITHIN ANOTHER

strsearch proc far

push si ; s*ave registers

push d1
push cx

; get length of destination

and point to first byte

mov

si.dx ;

use source index

lodsw

get the length of destination

mov

cx,ax ;

use the length as a count

mov

dx.si

text begins here

strsearch!

; point indices to beginning

of source and destination

mov

si.bx ;

load source index

mov

di.dx ;

load destination index

; scan for match

mov

al,Csi+2] ;

get the first character

cld

;

forward direction

repnz

scasb ;

scan for match

jcxz

strsearch2 ;

quit if found no match

; got a match of first characters - now check the entire string

mov

dx,di ;

save current destination loc

dec

di ;

beginning of word

lodsw

;

get length of source

xchg

cx,ax ;

use source count and save dest count

repz

cmpsb ;

compare the two strings

jcxz

strsearch3 ;

it*s a match if no more source

; continue

the scan

xchg

cx,ax ;

use destination count

jmp

strsearch! ;

back for more scanning of dest

; no match

is possible

strsearch2:

mov

al ,0 ;

unsuccessful outcome

jmp

strsearchexit

; found a match

strsearch3;

dec

point to beginning of match

mov

al.OFFh

successful match

jmp

strsearchexit

mommKcm

mmHM/umsmm

MOVING?

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LATTICE.

C Compilers

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CIRCLE NO. 124 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Strings

strsearchexit:

pop

; restore registers

pop

ret

strsearch

endp

Listing 4 STRINSERT

FUNCTION: This routine inserts a source string
in a specified place in a destination string.

INPUT: Upon entry DS:BX points to the source
string, ES:BP points to the destination string, and
ES:DX points to the spot in the destination string at
which the source is to be placed. Each string begins
with a 16-bit integer specifying the string's length.
OUTPUT: Upon exit the destination string has the
source string inserted in the proper place. The
length of the destination string is increased.
REGISTERS USED: No registers are modified.
SEGMENTS REFERENCED: Upon entry the
data segment must contain the source string; the ex¬
tra segment must contain the destination string.
ROUTINES CALLED: None
SPECIAL NOTES: None
CODE:

; ROUTINE TO INSERT ONE STRING WITHIN ANOTHER

•.addressing equates

essorc

equ es:[si]

; equate for source in extra seg

dsdest

equ byte ptr[di] ; equate for usual destination

strinsert

proc far

push

; save registers

push

; find current end of destination string

mov

si ,bp

; start of string

add

si,es:[si]

; point to next to last byte

inc

; adjust for length information

; find new

end of destination string and update length

mov

d i, s i

; get old end of destination

mov

ax ,[bx]

; get length of source

add

di ,ax

; new end of destination

add

es:[bp],ax

; new length of destination

; move tail

of destination

string out of the way

mov

cx.si

; SI - DX + 1 is the count

sub

cx.dx

inc

std

; backward direction

repmovs

dsdest,essorc

; move the tail

; move source string into place

mov

di ,dx

; destination of move

mov

si ,bx

; source of move

cld

; forward direction

lodsw

; length of source

mov

cx ,ax

; the count

rep

movsb

; make the string move

strinsertex

it:

pop

; restore registers

pop

116

PC Tech Journal

If you’ve ever found yourself searching
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Strings

pop

ret

strinsert

endp

Listing 5 LEXSEARCH

FUNCTION: This routine searches a lexigraphic-
ally (alphabetically) ordered list of word strings for
the proper place to insert a new word.

INPUT: Upon entry DS:BX points to a source word
string, and ES-.BP points to the ordered list of words.
The source word string begins with a 16-bit integer
that specifies the length of the string and then con¬
tinues with the bytes of the string. The last byte
must be a carriage return symbol (ASCII 13). The
destination list of words begins with a 16-bit integer
that specifies the length of the string in character
bytes and continues with words that consist of
ASCII characters. The words are separated by car¬
riage return symbols (ASCII 13).

OUTPUT: Upon exit AL contains a return flag
(O==not found, OFFh=found). If the search was suc¬
cessful ES:DX contains the location of the proper
place to insert the new word. If the word was al¬

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ready present then ES:DX points to the location of
this word in the destination string.

REGISTERS USED: Only AX and DX are modi¬
fied because they are used for output.

SEGMENTS REFERENCED: Upon entry the
data segment must contain the source string; the ex¬
tra segment must contain the destination word list.
ROUTINES CALLED: None
SPECIAL NOTES: None
CODE:

; ROUTINE

TO SEARCH FOR

A WORD IN AN ORDERED LIST OF WORDS

lexsearch

proc far

push

; save registers

push

; point to beginning of

list.and get its length

mov

di ,bp

; beginning of list

mov

cx,[di]

; get length

inc

compare source word with words in the list

lexsearchl;

mov dx,di ; save beginning of dest word

; forward direction

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CIRCLE NO. 179 ON READER SERVICE CARD

^VERSION 2.0

This is THE PASCAL COMPILER
YouVe Been Hearing About

‘Turbo is a winner.”

PC Tech Journal,
July 1984

i|9.95

; .^ you don’t have CP/M [for
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' . SoftciLk/Apple, May 1984

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tlight^t interest in Pasi

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Strings

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CIRCLE NO. 156 ON READER SERVICE CARD

cld

; forward direction

; point to beginning of i

source

moY

si ,bx

; point to beginning of source

inc

; compare

source word with a word of the list

lexsearch2:

• ; check for end of list

jcxz

lexsearchS

; end of list - insert it

; set up carriage return

as character for scanning

mov

al ,13

; scan for carriage return

; check for end of source word

cmp

Csij.al

; source byte = carriage return?

lexsearch4

; end of source word found

; check for end of destination word

cmp

es:[di],al

; dest byte = carriage return?

lexsearch3

; no match - go to next word

; compare

character by character

dec

cmpsb

; check for match

je ’

lexsearch2

; matched - check next character

lexsearchS

; too high - this is the place

; scan for
1exsearch3

next carriage

return

repnz

scasb

; scan until carriage return

jmp

lexsearchl

; next word

end of source word was

found

lexsearch4

cmp

[di],al

; dest character = carriage return?

lexsearch6

; end of destination word?

; found a

spot to insert

the word

lexsearchS:

mov

al,0FFh

; success

jmp

lexsearchexit

; word is

already present

lexsearch6

mov

aliOOh

; already there

jmp

lexsearchexit

lexsearchexit:

pop

; restore registers

pop

ret

lexsearch

endp

Listing 6 LEXINSERT
FUNCTION: This routine inserts a word string in
the proper place in a lexigraphically (alphabetically)
ordered list of words.

INPUT: Upon entry DS-.BX points to a source word
string: ES;BP points to the ordered list of words. The
source word string begins with a 16-bit integer that
specifies the length of the string. The last byte must
be a carriage return symbol (ASCII 13). The destina¬
tion list of words begins with a 16-bit integer that
specifies the length of the string and continues with
words that consist of ASCII characters. The words
are separated by carriage return symbols (ASCII 13).
OUTPUT: Upon exit the string is inserted properly.

120

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Strings

REGISTERS USED: No registers are modified.
SEGMENTS REFERENCED: Upon entry the
data segment and the extra segment must be equal,
and they must contain the source string and the des¬
tination word list.

ROUTINES CALLED: LEXSEARCH,

STRINSERT

SPECIAL NOTES: None
CODE:

; ROUT IKE

TO INSERT A WORO

IN AN OROEREO LIST OF WORDS

lexinsert

proc far

push

; save registers

call

lexsearch

; search for match

cmp

a1,0

; already there?

lexinsertexit

; skip if so

call

str insert

; insert the new word

lexinsertexit:

pop

; restore registers

ret

lexinsert

endp

Listing 7 COMPARE

FUNCTION: This routine compares two strings of
the same length.

INPUT: Upon entry DS:SI points to one string (the
source) and DSsDI points to a second string (the des¬
tination). Both strings have lengths given by CX.
OUTPUT: Upon exit the flags specify the relation
of the source to the destination:

1 = source string is less than destination string
e = source string is equal to destination string
g = source string is greater than destination
string

REGISTERS USED: Only AX is modified.
SEGMENTS REFERENCED: Upon entry the
data segment contains the source string and the ex¬
tra segment contains the destination string.

ROUTINES CALLED: None
SPECIAL NOTES: None
CODE:

; ROUTINE

TO COMPARE TWO

STRINGS

compare

proc far

push

; save registers

push

repz

cmpsb

; one compare does it!

pop

; restore registers

pop

ret

compare endp

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Strings

Listing 8 SWITCH
FUNCTION: This routine switches two strings.
INPUT: Upon entry DS;SI points to one string (the
source) and ES:DI points to a second string (the des¬
tination). Both strings have lengths given by CX.
OUTPUT: Upon exit the strings are switched.
REGISTERS USED: No registers are modified.
SEGMENTS REFERENCED: Upon entry the
data segment contains the source string and the ex¬
tra segment contains the destination string.

ROUTINES CALLED: None
SPECIAL NOTES: None
CODE:

; ROUTINE

TO SWITCH TWO

STRINGS

switch

proc far

push

; save registers

push

cld

; forword direction

switchl:

mov

a1,[di]

; get byte from destination

movsb

; move from source to destination

mov

es;[si-l],al

; put byte in source

loop

switchl

; loop back for more

pop

; restore registers

pop

pop di
pop si
ret

switch endp

Listing 9 BSORT

FUNCTION: This routine sorts a string array by
using bubble sort.

INPUT: Upon entry DS:SI points to a string array,
CX contains the number of entries in the array, and
DX contains the size of each entry.

OUTPUT: Upon exit the array is sorted.
REGISTERS USED: No registers are modified.
SEGMENTS REFERENCED: Upon entry the
data segment and the extra segment must be equal
and must contain the string array.

ROUTINES CALLED: COMPARE, SWITCH

SPECIAL NOTES: None

CODE:

; ROUTINE

TO SORT A STRING ARRAY

bsort

proc far

push

si ; save registers

push

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CIRCLE NO. 116 ON READER SERVICE CARD

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Strings

; adjust count for one less than number of items I

dec cx ; adjust the count

Waterloo

; outer loop - for SI = 1 TO N-1

bsortl:

NetWorkStation

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push cx ; save the count '

mov di,si ; destination points to source

; inner loop ^orDT = P+t |o If .

bsort2;

push cx ; save the count

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acfcf dfVdx ; point to next destination ~

mov cx,dx ; entry length

call compare ; compare the strings

Jl'e bsortS ; skip if source <= list '' i

call switch ; switch if not :

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pop cx ; restore the count

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s’|»^x ; pdfhl. HI nexl'source

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_ CIRCLE NO. 207 ON READER SERVICE CARD ^

PC Tech Journal

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CIRCLE NO. 138 ON READER SERVICE CARD

IS SIMPLE

This little-known,
love-it-OT-leave-it
language attacks
the game of Life
with ease.

rogrammers who have used
1 APL are rarely ambivalent
r about it. This is a program¬
ming language to either love or
hate. "Learn a proper language,
not APL," say its detractors, while en¬
thusiastic APL users react quite differ¬
ently. "Keep doing things the hard
way, or start using APL," they advise.

I paid my money, took my
chances, and rapidly became an APL
enthusiast. APL is to other program¬
ming languages what poetry is to
prose: concise, expressive, and versa¬
tile. It is easier to use than "proper"
programming languages for two rea¬
sons: it has an interactive, extensible
programming environment and simple,
consistent data handling.

BASIC programmers, when first
exposed to APL, undoubtedly will no¬
tice several similarities in BASIC and
APL. Both languages are interactive,
have commands to store and retrieve
programs from disk files, include built-
in program editing facilities, and

Pardner Wynn

Pardner Wynn is a Ph.D. candidate in
electrical engineering at Stanford University.
He is a part-time microcomputer consultant
and is cunently working on a major
educational software program for the PC.

September i984

129

APL

Figure 1: Common APL Operations

The following is a guide to a small subset of common APL operations. Short
examples illustrate how these operations are used in the Life game program.

Four test variables are used in the examples:

V is 1 3

5 7 (numeric vector)

S is 5

(numeric scalar)

M is 1 2

3 4 (2-D numeric matrix)

5 6

7 8

9 10

11 12

C is A B

C D (2-D character matrix)

E F

G H

I I

K L

Name

Description

Format

Example

Assignment

Assign value of

y—X

y-s

X to y

y^V

Puts 5 in variable y

Puts array 1 3 5 7 in y

Addition

X + y

S + 1 is 6

(scalar H- scalar=scalar)

V -h S is 6 8 10 12
(vector + scalar=vector)

V + 1 2 3 4 is

2 5 8 11 (vector-h vec¬
tor = vector)

Subtraction

X - y

Multiplication

X X y

Division

X ^ y

Logical AND, OR

X A y

lAl is 1 (true)

X V y

lOVll is 11 (true true)

Logical NOT

---x

-1 isO
'^0 is 1

Rotate

Rotate y along last

X 0 y

10V is 3 5 7 1

axis as specified

-10V is 7 13 5

by X

20Mis 3 4 12

7 8 5 6

11 12 9 10

Rotate

Rotate y along first

xOy

lOMis 5 6 7 8

axis as specified

9 10 11 12

by X

12 3 4

Format

Convert y to

®y

®Vis 13 5 7

Quad

character(s)

(7 characters: 4
digits and 3 spaces)

Output contents of

□^x

□<—V shows 13 5 7

Roll

X to display

on display

Give random integer

?S gives random integer

from 1—X

from 1-5

?V gives 4 random integers

from (1-1) (1-3) (1-5) (1-7)

have a host of math, character,
program control, and program de¬
bugging functions.

This apparent similarity is mis¬
leading, however. APL takes these
common features far beyond the
capabilities of BASIC. APL work¬
spaces simplify the management of
programming projects. The language
can be extended to meet appli¬
cations. It treats data consistently—
the same operators deal with scalars
and arrays, or with numbers and
characters. Syntax is simple and un¬
ambiguous. Further, APL has an un¬
equaled assortment of built-in func¬
tions. (See figure 1.)

APL Syntax

APL syntax underscores the simplic¬
ity of the language. It requires the
user to memorize no precedence
rules. In APL, every expression is
evaluated right to left, except where
grouped by parentheses. Most lan¬
guages evaluate expressions from
left to right and give some operators
precedence over others.

For example, in the expression
4+3X2+1 = 11, multiplication
takes precedence over addition in
most languages. In APL the same
expression is evaluated right to left
as f(l+2)X3J+4=13. Multiplica¬
tion is not done first, unless paren¬
theses are used to alter the evalua¬
tion order, as in 4+f3X2) + l = ll.

Why does APL exhibit this
nonstandard lack of operator prece¬
dence? Because it's simpler. Memo¬
rizing the precedence of more than
75 built-in operators is impractical.
Since all operators in APL have the
same precedence, only parentheses
alter the right-to-left evaluation or¬
der, and any APL expression is sim¬
plified and unambiguous.

APL AND Data

No other language gives a program¬
mer control of data the way APL
does. One reason is that any APL
variable can hold any type of data—
numeric or character, scalar or ar¬

ray—at any time. Figure 2 shows
how to assign a value to an APL
variable. A very similar BASIC ex¬
pression is also shown. In fact, add¬
ing two variables is done in much
the same way in BASIC and APL.
But the similarity ends when a list
(or array) of data must be stored and
used—APL is much simpler.

APL handles arrays in the same
way it handles single numbers

(called scalars). To assign a list of
numbers to an APL variable, the
programmer simply has to do it—no
loops, no fuss. In contrast (as shown
in figure 2), BASIC must use a spe¬
cial dimensioned-array variable, and
each data value has to be loaded sep¬
arately into its spot in the array.

APL adds two arrays just as it adds
two scalars. In fact, a function con¬
taining a line that does this may be

130

PC Tech Journal

Figure 2: APL Versus BASIC
Data Handling

Assigning scalar data to
variables:

APL BASIC

NUM 1 4- 4 NUM I = 4

NUM 2 — 2 NUM 2 = 2

Adding scalar variables:

APL BASIC

SUM - NUM 1 SUM = NUM 1

+ NUM 2 + NUM 2

Assigning array data to
variables:

APL BASIC

LIST 1 — 0 24 LIST 1 [I] = 0 :

LIST 2 — 4 5 6 LIST 2 [I] = 4

LIST 1 [2] = 2 :

LIST 2 [2] = 5
LIST 1 [3] = 4 :
LIST 2 [3] = 6

Adding array variables:

APL BASIC

SUMLIST—LIST 1 + For I = 1 to 3

LIST 2 SUMLIST [I] =

LIST 1 [I] +
LIST 2 [I]

Next I

Figure 3: APL Indexing

Simple array indexing:

12 3 4

LIST 1

LIST 1 [1 3 4] 1

General array indexing:

1 2 3

DATA

'A'

'B'

'C'

INDEX

DATA [INDEX]

'A'

'C'

'B'

'A'

used with array data one time and
with scalar data another time.

Individual elements of an array
are accessed in APL just as in

BASIC. In figure 3, LISTI [3] is the
third element in a variable LISTI
(which is 4 in the example). APL
indexing is much more general,
however. Almost any subset of an
array can be specified by listing
which elements are desired. For ex¬
ample, LISTI [ 1 3 4 ] is an array
with three elements: the first, third,
and fourth elements of LISTI.

The second example in figure 3
better illustrates APL indexing.
DATA is a short string consisting of
three characters, "ABC"; INDEX is
a 2-by-2 matrix of numbers from I
to 3. The expression DATA[IN-
DEX] creates a 2-by-2 matrix of
characters, with an "A" wherever
INDEX is 1, "B" where INDEX is 2,
and "C" where INDEX is 3.

Because of its treatment of data,
APL is popular with programmers
who must deal with large volumes
of data. Each time APL works with
data, it determines the type of data
and behaves appropriately.

Extensible and
Interactive

APL's extensible and interactive na¬
ture is largely responsible for the
popularity of the language. It is ex¬
tensible because the user's functions
actually extend to meet his current
needs. When a function is inside
the active (memory) workspace, it is
part of APL—there is no difference
between primitive (built-in) and
user-defined functions.

Any APL function can be indi¬
vidually executed by typing its
name and any required parameters.
For example, in order to calculate
23.4X567.8, type that expression in.
APL will execute it immediately
and display the answer, 591.2. Be¬
sides being handy for "calculator-
style" computing, this interaction is
helpful for developing functions.

When APL is used to develop
an algorithm, it can test small sec¬
tions interactively, using any special
test data that are necessary. This al¬
lows programs to be created and ver¬

ified one step at a time. After using
this approach a few times, a pro¬
grammer probably will not want to
go back to the testing environment
most languages dictate—that is, edit
the whole thing, then cross your
fingers and watch for smoke.

To help the user with this mod¬
ular development, APL's debugging
facilities can trace or single-step
through the functions. This pro¬
vides a "window" into a function's
operation while it executes.

The APL Workspace

APL is not merely a programming
language. It is an interactive envi¬
ronment for program development.
Figure 4 presents an analogy to the
APL environment. A carpenter who
builds shelves and tables uses the
same workroom for both types of
work. He has a separate closet for
unfinished shelves and tables, and
probably keeps his tools, nails, and
finishing supplies in another closet.

In APL a computer's memory is
an active workspace that holds both
the functions and the data being
worked on. Different projects' work¬
spaces can be saved in disk files.
Many APL programmers also keep
"toolbox" workspaces on disks that
hold utility functions to simplify
program editing or testing. These
disk-based workspaces cannot be
worked on directly, but functions
and data can be transferred freely
between active (memory) and saved
(disk file) workspaces.

A programmer may have sev¬
eral ongoing APL projects, with a
saved workspace for each. To switch
to another project, he can save the
current active workspace in a disk
file, then copy another project's
workspace from disk into a clean,
active workspace.

The Game of Life

The best way to get a taste for what
APL can do better than other lan¬
guages is to see it in action. My first
APL solo flight was a program to

September i984

131

APL

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play the game of Life. Devised by
the Cambridge mathematician J.H.
Conway, this game simulates a col¬
ony of simple organisms in a con¬
fined environment. The program is
short—about 40 lines long—but
demonstrates several important APL
features: function declarations, ma¬
trix operations, temporary variables,
random number generation, string
manipulation, row reduction and
expansion, and program branching.

The game of Life is very easy.
Only three rules control the growth
of the colony: (1) an organism will
die if it has fewer than two neigh¬
bors,- (2) an organism will die if it
has more than three neighbors; and
(3) an organism will be born into an
empty spot if that location has ex¬
actly three neighboring organisms.
The program computes what the
next generation of the colony looks
like by applying these rules to each
location in the colony.

Six functions comprise the Life
game program:

NEXTGEN uses the three rules
above to compute the next gen¬
eration of organisms from the
current generation.

NUMNEIGHBORS is used by
NEXTGEN to count the num¬
ber of organisms next to each
spot in the colony.

RANDOM distributes the first
generation of organism ran¬
domly, with an initial density
selected by the player.

Each generation of organisms is
printed out by the function
SHOWCOLONY.

INITBORDER creates a variable
that is used to help print out
the colony.

LIFEGAME is the main function.
It ties together the other five
functions.

Main Data Structures

The primary data structure in Life
is the game board, which is a square
matrix. Only one organism can oc¬
cupy any one spot on the board.

132

PC Tech Journal

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APL

System Memory

An APL Programmer's Workspace

A Carpenter's Workspace

Figure 4: The APL Environment

Each spot has eight adjacent spots,
so an organism may have up to
eight neighbors. The simplest struc¬
ture is a matrix with a 1 in every lo¬
cation that has an organism, and a 0
in each empty spot.

The matrix variable, COLONY,
is illustrated in figure 5 for a 5-by-5
game board. In that example five
organisms in COLONY are denoted
by Is in the matrix. In APL, as in

BASIC, the elements of an array are
referred to by indexing. For in¬
stance, the five organisms in COLO¬
NY are located at the coordinates
[2;3] (row 2, column 3), [3;3], [3;2],
[4;2], and [4;4]. Thus, COLONY
[4,4] is an APL expression referring
to the organism near the lower right
corner of the game board.

Five more variables the same
size as our game board COLONY

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APL

Figure 5: Life Data Structures

row

COLONY

NEIGHBORS

LONELY

CROWDED

(NEIGHBORS<2 A COLONY) (NEIGHBORS>3 A COLONY)

column

2 3 4

2 3

4 5

0 0

0 1

1 [F

0 0

1 1

1 0

0 0

1 0

I 0 0

0 0

BORN

(NEIGHBORS=3)

2 3

4 5

0 0

0 fo"

fo"

0 0

0 1

0 0

□

0 0

DIED

(LONELY V CROWDED)

the next COLONY generation

((BORN) V (COLONY A ~ DIED))

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are used. The variable NEIGHBORS
(figure 5) keeps track of how many
neighbors each spot on the board
has. For example, the location
COLONY[2;2] has three adjacent or¬
ganisms (marked by Is in locations
[2,-3], [3;3], and [3;2]). Therefore,
NEIGHBORS[2;2] equals 3.

Each spot in COLONY with ex¬
actly three neighbors is marked by a
1 in the variable BORN, as in figure
5. This variable is used to enforce
the rule that an organism can be
born into an empty spot with three
neighboring organisms.

LONELY and CROWDED mark
the location of each organism that
will die because it has fewer than or
more than three neighbors. DIED
combines LONELY and CROWDED
into one matrix.

The NEXTGEN Function

The heart of the Life program is the
NEXTGEN function. This function

computes what the next generation
of COLONY will look like; it is an
expression of the three rules of Life
that were presented above.

Each line in the NEXTGEN
function implements a separate
portion of the game rules. APL's
simplified array handling lets each
line do the work of a half-dozen
statements in conventional lan¬
guages. As soon as a user is familiar
with some basic APL symbols and
syntax, a function such as NEXT¬
GEN is easy to read and write.

The first line (0) of any APL
function is a function declaration. It
gives the name of the function, how
the function is used, and what (if
any) temporary variables are to be
created for use by the function.

In figure 6, line 0 of NEXT¬
GEN declares five temporary vari¬
ables that will exist only while
NEXTGEN is executing. These
temporary variables are declared by

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APL

listing the desired variable names
on line 0, preceding each one with a
semicolon. These variables hold sev¬
eral intermediate results.

Compare the NEXTGEN func¬
tion declaration (line 0) in figure 6
to line 8 of the LIFEGAME function
in figure 12, where NEXTGEN is
actually used. The two lines are
similar in form (ignoring the five
declared temporary variables). The
function declaration provides a tem¬
plate for how the function is used.

In line 8 of LIFEGAME,
NEXTGEN is executed with one in¬
put parameter, the COLONY game
board. It also has an output (the up¬
dated game board) that is assigned to
another variable (in this example
COLONY is used again, but any
variable could have been used to
''catch" NEXTGEN's output data).

The NEXTGEN function decla¬
ration supports this by providing a
temporary input variable (called
COLONYIN) and a temporary out¬
put variable (called COLONYOUT).
Whenever NEXTGEN is used, in¬
put data (COLONY, in the example)
are copied into NEXTGEN's tempo¬
rary input variable. When the func¬
tion ends, whatever is in the tempo¬
rary output variable is automatically
assigned to the indicated variable
(COLONY in line 8 of LIFEGAME).

NEXTGEN does not care what
the name of the original input data
is, or where the data came from.
NEXTGEN can thus be used in sev¬
eral places with different variables.

An APL function declaration,
then, completely describes how a
function is used. NEXTGEN re¬
quires one input parameter, and
returns an output value. It also re¬
serves five temporary variables to
accumulate intermediate results.

The remainder of the function
definition describes how it works.
Line 1 of NEXTGEN uses the
NUMNEIGHBORS function to
count the number of neighboring
organisms for each spot in
I COLONYIN (which is a copy of the

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138

PC Tech Journal

Professional BASIC ™ cuts your
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CIRCLE NO. 135 ON READER SERVICE CARD

APL

Figure 6: NEXTGEN

0 3

COLONYOUT

*•

NEXTGEN COLONYIN ;NEIGHBORS
;B0RN ;LONELY ;CROWDED ;DIED

NEIGHBORS

*•

NUMNEIGHBORS COLONYIN

BORN

*■

NEIGHBORS = 3

LONELY

«-

COLONYIN •• NEIGHBORS < 2

CROWDED

€-

COLONYIN • NEIGHBORS > 3

5 3

DIED

LONELY V CROWDED

COLONYOUT

BORN V COLONYIN - '"DIED

Figure 8: RANDOM

: 03 RANDOM

: 13 COLONY (? (SIZE, SIZE) F 100) I DENSITY

Figure 7: NUMNEIGHBORS Figure 9: SHOWCOLONY

0 3

TEMPOUT

«■

NUMNEIGHBORS TEMPIN

1 3

TEMPOUT

«-

1 5 1 e

TEMPIN

TEMPOUT

«-

TEMPOUT

1 e

TEMPIN

3 3

TEMPOUT

€-

TEMPOUT

4 -

-1 5

1 e TEMPIN

TEMPOUT

-1 5

TEMPIN

TEMPOUT

«-

TEMPOUT

“1 5

-1 e TEMPIN

TEMPOUT

-1 e

TEMPIN

TEMPOUT

1 I-

-1 e TEMPIN

TEMPOUT

1 5

TEMPIN

C 03 SHOWCOLONY ; CHARINDEX ; CHAROUT
C 13 CHARINDEX ^ BORDERMASK + COLONY + 1
C 23 CHAROUT €- 'X 0' C CHARINDEX 3
C 33 ((SIZE X 2) F 0 1) \ CHAROUT

C 43 □ 'GENERATION NUMBER; tGENERATION

i: 53 □ 'CURRENT POPULATION: ', tPOPULATION

C 63 □ <■ ' '

C 730^''

COLONY game board) and puts the
resulting matrix in the temporary
variable NEIGHBORS. In figure 5,
COLONY[2;2] has three neighbor¬
ing organisms, so NEIGHBORS [2;2]
is equal to 3.

Line 2 of NEXTGEN puts a 1
in each location of BORN corre¬
sponding to a COLONYIN spot
with exactly three neighboring or¬
ganisms. BORN can thus be used to
enforce the Life game rule that an
organism will be born into an
empty spot if that location has ex¬
actly three neighboring organisms.

The APL expression NEIGH¬
BORS =3 produces a matrix the
same size as NEIGHBORS. Where
NEIGHBORS equals 3, the expres¬
sion is true, and a 1 is put in that
location in the matrix. Where
NEIGHBORS does not equal 3, the
expression is false, so a 0 is put in
the matrix. This matrix is stored in
the BORN variable (see figure 5).

Notice that the expression in
line 2 performed a logical operation
on every location of an arbitrarily
sized matrix. This economy of ex¬
pression is unique to APL.

The Life rule that an organism
will die if it has fewer than two
neighbors is enforced in a similar
way by line 3 of NEXTGEN. As

illustrated in figure 5, the variable
LONELY marks the location of each
organism that will die. The expres¬
sion NEIGHBORS <2 does most of
the work by marking each location
in COLONYIN that has fewer than
two neighboring organisms.

T he NEXTGEN
function demon¬

strates how easily
(and automatically) APL
handles matrix data. The

user never has to be con¬
cerned with the size or
shape of a matrix.

When NEIGHB0RS<2 is
ANDed with COLONYIN, only
those board locations with fewer
than two neighbors and with an or¬
ganism present are marked. This
works because of the data structure
that is chosen for the game board
COLONY: locations with an organ¬
ism present have a 1, empty spots
hold a 0. A logical AND puts a 1 in
LONELY where both COLONYIN
and NEIGHB0RS<2 are 1.

The rule that an organism will
die if it has more than three neigh¬

bors is enforced in line 4 using the
same method as was used in line
3—the CROWDED variable marks
locations that have an organism and
more than three neighbors.

Line 5 of the NEXTGEN func¬
tion marks each organism in
COLONYIN that will expire. That
is, a logical OR operation allows the
variable DIED to mark each loca¬
tion where an organism is either
LONELY or CROWDED.

The last line of the NEXTGEN
function updates COLONYOUT to
the next generation of organisms.
The next COLONY generation is
depicted in figure 5.

The NEXTGEN function
demonstrates how easily (and auto¬
matically) APL handles matrix data.
The user never has to be concerned
with the size or shape of a particu¬
lar matrix. To find exactly which
locations in a matrix are greater
than two, a simple expression like
MATRIX>2 is sufficient.

The NUMNEIGHBORS
Function

NUMNEIGHBORS uses two simple
but powerful matrix rotate opera¬
tions to perform some elementary
''signal processing" on the game
board. The NEXTGEN function

140

PC Tech Journal

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Figure 10: Printing COLONY

1 2

4 5

1 1

1 2

2 1

I 3

2 1

1 3

3 1

1 1

COLONY BORDERMASK CHARINDEX

(COLONY + BORDERMASK + 1)

1 2 3 4 5

XXX

X 0

X 0 0

X X

X 0

XXX

0 X

X X

CHAROUT

'X 0' [CHARINDEX]

Figure: 11: INITBORDER

C O: INITBORDER

C ID BORDERMASK (SIZE,SIZE) F 1
C 2D BORDERMASK C 1,SIZE ; D <- 0
C 3D BORDERMASK C ; 1,SIZE D <- 0

Figure 12: LIFEGAME

LIFEGAME

1 D

INITBORDER

RANDOM

COLONY «■ COLONY BORDERMASK

POPULATION €- +/ ,COLONY

GENERATION <- 1

LOOP; -JEND X i-POPULATION = 0

SHOWCOLONY

COLONY «• NEXTGEN COLONY

GENERATION GENERATION + 1

lOD

COLONY €■ COLONY BORDERMASK

IID

POPULATION <- +/ ,COLONY

12D

-*LOOP

13D

END: □ 'ALL ORGANISMS EXTINCT!

14D

□ *■ 'Goodbye. '

uses NUMNEIGHBORS to compute
the number of organisms adjacent to
each location in COLON YIN. As
figure 7 shows, line 0 in NUM¬
NEIGHBORS copies the game board
in COLONYIN into a temporary in¬
put variable called TEMPIN; it re¬
turns an output value (to NEIGH¬
BORS) via the TEMPOUT (tempo¬
rary output) variable. No other tem¬
porary variables are used.

One way to write NUM¬
NEIGHBORS is to examine each
spot in TEMPIN individually and
count the number of Is (organisms)
in the eight adjacent spots. This
works, but there is a simpler way to
approach the problem. Every organ¬
ism (marked in TEMPIN with a 1)
has eight adjacent locations. If we
add Is to the eight locations adja¬
cent to each organism in TEMPIN,
the result is the same as the original
suggestion: every spot with n adja¬
cent organisms holds the number n.

The Is can be added to the
TEMPIN variable using two APL
rotate operators (refer to figure 1).
Line 1 of NUMNEIGHBORS tem¬
porarily shifts TEMPIN (a copy of
COLONYIN, which is NEXTGEN's
copy of the COLONY board) up one
row and left one column, and stores
this matrix in TEMPOUT. This
procedure puts a 1 in each location
that is up and to the left of an or¬
ganism. Line 2 temporarily shifts
TEMPIN up one row and adds this
to the previous TEMPOUT matrix.
For each organism on the board
(TEMPIN), a I has been added to
the two locations: up one and left
one; and up one. For each empty
spot on the game board. Os have
been harmlessly added to the same
two relative locations since empty
spots are represented by Os.

Lines 3 through 8 of NUM¬
NEIGHBORS repeat this process for
the remaining six locations adjacent
to each organism. When NUM¬
NEIGHBORS finishes, each or¬
ganism has added a I to each of its
eight adjacent spots. The final

count, stored in the temporary
output matrix TEMPOUT, is as¬
signed to NEIGHBORS in line 1 of
the NEXTGEN function.

The random Function

RANDOM demonstrates APL's sim¬
ple facilities for random number
generation. For small game boards,
such as those in figure 5, a Life
program user could create his own
initial COLONY matrix. However,
Life is most interesting with a board
measuring 15 by 15 or larger—even

though typing in 225 matrix ele¬
ments is somewhat tedious.

The RANDOM function will
scatter organisms randomly
throughout COLONY. A user has
some control over how COLONY
starts oflf, since he uses the DEN¬
SITY variable to select the approxi¬
mate initial percentage of occupied
COLONY locations. If the user se¬
lects an initial population density
that is too low (5 percent) the organ¬
isms are spread thinly, and they rap¬
idly die out because they have

142

PC Tech Journal

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APL

fewer than two neighbors. If the
initial population is too dense (50
percent or more), massive initial
overcrowding thins the organisms
quickly. Initial densities from 15 to
30 percent seem to fare best.

Although RANDOM (figure 8)
is only one line in APL, the core ex¬
pression, SIZE, SIZE P100, creates a
matrix with SIZE rows and SIZE
columns, with the value 100 in
each location. When the ? operator,
called roll, is applied to this matrix,
it replaces each 100 with a random
number from 1 to 100 inclusive.

Each element of this new ma¬
trix (which is now filled with ran¬
dom numbers from 1 to 100) is com¬
pared to the global variable DEN¬
SITY, a scalar value of 1 to 100. The
COLONY matrix is created with a 1
in every location in which the ran¬
dom number was less than or equal
to DENSITY, and a 0 in every other
spot. For a low DENSITY value like
5, about 5 percent of the random
numbers will be less than or equal
to DENSITY, so about 5 percent of
COLONY elements will be Is.

The SHOWCOLONY
Function

The SHOWCOLONY function (fig¬
ure 9) introduces APL character
handling and provides an example
of the language's powerful array in¬
dexing. To display the successive
generations of COLONY, the user
could just print out the variable
COLONY. However, the resulting
pattern of Is and Os would be a bit
overwhelming. SHOWCOLONY is
used to transform COLONY to the
CHAROUT format shown in figure
10. Three characters are used in the
print-out: an X for the colony bor¬
ders, a space for empty spots, and
the letter O for organisms.

SHOWCOLONY can be fit on
two or three lines if no temporary
variables are used, but the resulting
definition is rather obscure. The
temporary variables CHARINDEX
and CHAROUT are introduced to

Figure 13: A Sample Run of the LIFEGAME Program

H A Sample run of the Life Game Proqram

H <— NOTE: this symbol starts an APL comment; anything
R typed after it is ignored bv APL.

H ++<-++ INSTRUCTIONS +++ + +

H 1. Assign the sise of the game board to SIZE.

R 2. Assign a density from 1 to 100 to DENSITY.

R 3. Type’LIFEGAME ...

H +++++ EXAMPLE: +++++

SIZE ^ 20
DENSITY <- ^

LIFEGAME

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

o o
0 0 0
0 0 o
0 0
0 0 0

o o

xxxxxxxxxx

GENERATION NUMBER:
CURRENT POPULATION:

XXXXXXXX

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

GENERATION NUMBER: 5
CURRENT POPULATION; 32

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

0 □
0

0 o
0

xxxxxxxxx

GENERATION NUMBER:
CURRENT POPULATION; 22

xxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

GENERATION NUMBER; 6
CURRENT POPULATION; 16

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

0 0 0
0 0

0 o
0 0

0 0
0 o

xxxxxxxxx

GENERATION NUMBER:
CURRENT POPULATION;

XXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

0 0 0 0 0 0

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
GENERATION NUMBER: 4
CURRENT POPULATION: 18

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
GENERATION NUMBER: 7
CURRENT POPULATION; 4

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

O O
O O

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
GENERATION NUMBER: 8
CURRENT POPULATION: 4

144

PC Tech Journal

Figure 14: ModiRed RANDOM Function

RANDOM

R create

20x20 matrix of O's

COLONY

«■

20 P 0

R put

' 5

in COLONY to define Cheshire

Cat pattern

COLONY

; 9 12 3 <- 1

COLONY

; 9 10 11 12 3 <■ 1

COLONY

10 11 ; 8 3 1

COLONY

10 11 ; 13 3 1

103

COLONY

; 9 10 11 12 3 «■ 1

113

COLONY

; 10 11 3 1

alternating Os and Is that is twice as
wide as COLONY. The expansion
operator uses this as a template to
form a new character matrix: in
each row of CHAROUT, an extra
blank is inserted for each 0 in the
template, and a character in CHAR¬
OUT is inserted for each 1. This ex¬
panded version is printed by assign¬
ing it to the quad function.

help logically separate subtasks
within the function. It is wise to do
this whenever a function definition
starts to look a little complex.

The function declaration for
SHOWCOLONY is simpler than for
NEXTGEN, NUMNEIGHBORS,
and RANDOM. It has no input pa¬
rameter, and no output value is re¬
turned. SHOWCOLONY takes its
input directly from COLONY and
displays its output on the screen.

The rightmost expression in
line 1 of SHOWCOLONY (figure 9)
adds 1 to every location in COL¬
ONY, so an organism is represented
by a 2, and a blank spot by a 1. This
intermediate result is added to BOR-
DERMASK (which the function
INITBORDER creates with Os
around the outer edges, and Is in¬
side, as discussed below). The result
of line 1 is a matrix (stored in
CHARINDEX) that has a 1 in every
border location, a 2 in each empty
spot, and a 3 for each organism.

Line 2 of SHOWCOLONY uses
APL's powerful array indexing.

Since CHARINDEX is a COLONY-
sized matrix with values ranging
from 1 (border) to 3 (organism), the
dummy variable CHAROUT will
be assigned a COLONY-sized matrix
with an X in each location where
CHARINDEX = 1, a space wher¬
ever CHARINDEX = 2, and an O
wherever CHARINDEX = 3.

A display of CHAROUT would
look a little cramped. Line 3 of the
SHOWCOLONY function uses the
expansion operator \ to spread out
CHAROUT when it is printed. The
leftmost expression creates a row of

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DEALER INQUIRIES CIRCLE NO. 149 ON READER SERVICE CARD
END USERS CIRCLE NO. 205 ON READER SERVICE CARD

APL

Casual or Serious: Which APL System to Choose

T have used two APL systems for memory management. The IBM

X the IBM PC: the recently released package will print the complete APL

IBM package (which I own) and the character set only on an IBM graph-

STSC version. Based upon reviews ics printer. I have an Epson FX-80,

published in the past several months which almost does the trick, but a
and based upon my own experience, few characters don't print correctly.

I recommend the IBM package for Perhaps some clever programmers

the casual APL user and STSC's APL will come up with special APL print-
for the enthusiast. er software in the near future.

Although the STSC APL system My second complaint with the

costs three times more than IBM's IBM package is its stinginess with

$195, the IBM system requires the memory. My PC has 512K of mem-

8087 Math Coprocessor. This addi- ory, but the APL active workspace is

tional purchase will effectively raise still limited to 64K. This inadequate

the price of the IBM package by memory management restricts pro-

$200 to $250. grammers with even moderate

IBM's APL uses a color graphics amounts of data. Remaining memory
adapter so special APL symbols can forms an "elastic" workspace that

be displayed with no special hard- can hold functions and data not im-

ware. It can use the monochrome mediately required. APL automati-

adapter as well, but will not cor- cally (and slowly) swaps objects be-

rectly display all of the APL sym- tween the 64K active workspace

bols. The STSC system works with where all calculations take place and

either display adapter, but requires a this elastic workspace reservoir, but
special APL character ROM. This with a noticeable time penalty,

makes for a more readable display The STSC package suffers from

using APL, but the screen may look neither lack of printer support nor

strange with other software, since APL inadequate memory,
symbols will be substituted for The lower-priced IBM APL

certain characters in the original package is clearly intended for a cas-

(replaced) IBM ROM. ual user, such as an engineer or busi-

Several auxiliary software mod- ness person who needs inexpensive

ules extend the IBM APL system to access to an APL system with moder-

allow file handling, display manage- ate capability. A PC dedicated to

ment, music generation, and full- more serious engineering, business,

screen function editing. STSC has a or educational applications would be

few extension packages as well. better equipped with the STSC's APL

IBM's APL is especially lacking package than with IBM's,

in two areas: printer support and —Pardner Wynn

Lines 4 and 5 print out strings
indicating the current generation
number and population count.
Format and concatenate operators
are used to convert the numeric
GENERATION and POPULATION
variables into strings and to add
them to the end of the message
strings. These arrays are assigned to
the quad function for printing.

SHOWCOLONY's last two lines
(6 and 7) print two blank lines by
assigning an empty string to quad.

The INITBORDER

Function

INITBORDER creates a matrix
filled with Is except for a ring of Os
around the outer border. This ma¬
trix is used by SHOWCOLONY and
LIFEGAME. Line 1 of INITBOR¬
DER (figure 11) creates a square ma¬
trix with SIZE rows and columns
called BORDERMASK (figure 10).
The matrix is initialized to all Is.
SIZE is a global variable that holds
the size of the COLONY matrix.

Lines 2 and 3 put Os in the first
and last rows and columns of BOR¬
DERMASK. BORDERMASK[l SIZE
; ] in line 2 refers to every element
in rows 1 and SIZE—when no col¬
umn numbers are specified every
column is assumed. So line 2 puts Os
in rows 1 and SIZE. Line 3 puts Os
in columns 1 and SIZE. BORDER-
MASK is thus a matrix the same
size as the game board fitted with Is
except for a ring of Os along the out¬
er edge.

SHOWCOLONY uses BORDER-
MASK to help print out the border
area of the COLONY game board
with a special character. Another
function, LIFEGAME, uses BOR¬
DERMASK to sterilize the outer
border of the COLONY game board
by ANDing these two variables.

This prevents organisms from get¬
ting to the edge of the game board.

The LIFEGAME Function

The LIFEGAME function controls
I the overall Life simulation (see fig¬

ure 12). Line 1 uses the function
INITBORDER to create the BOR¬
DERMASK variable used in SHOW-
COLONY and later in LIFEGAME.
In line 2, RANDOM is used to
create the COLONY matrix and to
(randomly) initialize it to the first
generation of organisms. Line 3 uses
BORDERMASK to sterilize the
outer border of COLONY.

The total number of organisms
in this first generation is tallied in
line 4. The expression COLONY
unravels COLONY from matrix
form into one long row of Is and Os.
The expression +/,COLONY
(called a row reduction) adds the Is
and Os in the unraveled COL¬

ONY row. This organism count is
put into POPULATION.

The current colony GENER¬
ATION number is initialized to 1
in line 5. Line 6 is an APL branch
statement. It is read: 'This line is
labeled 'LOOP'. Go to the line
labeled 'END' if POPULATION =
0." That is, when all organisms are
dead, the program will branch to the
statement labeled END (line 13).

SHOWCOLONY displays the
current COLONY in line 7, then
computes the next generation of the
colony in line 8 using the NEXT-
GEN function. GENERATION is
incremented to indicate the current
generation number in line 9.

146

PC Tech Journal

Like lines 3 and 4, lines 10 and

11 of LIFEGAME sterilize the col¬
ony border before counting the
number of organisms present. Line

12 is a jump to line 6 (labeled
LOOP), which is done to repeat the
display and update functions in
lines 7 through 11 until the organ¬
isms are dead. A brief termination
message is printed in line 13, fol¬
lowed by another one in line 14.

The Life Program

Before running the Life program,
the user should select the desired
size of the COLONY game board
and assign it to SIZE. A value of 15
will create a 15-by-15 matrix for
COLONY. The DENSITY variable
should be set to any number from 1
to 100 (15 to 30 for best results).
Typing LIFEGAME will start the
simulation. Figure 13 shows LIFE-
GAME being run on IBM's APL.

The colony of organisms alter¬
nately expands and contracts in fas¬
cinating patterns. The program
prints successive generations on the
computer display until no organ¬
isms remain. In some cases the col¬
ony never dies out, so the program
continues to execute until the user
presses the APL INTERRUPT key
(the Escape key in IBM's APL).

Although the random patterns
produced by the original RANDOM
function are interesting, the user
may want to define his own pat¬
terns. To do this, modify RAN¬
DOM to create COLONY with any
size and any pattern of Is and Os.
The sample session of figure 13 was
run with a modified version of the
RANDOM function, which assigns
COLONY a pattern of 18 organisms
called the Cheshire Cat (see figure
14). This pattern fades away in gen¬
erations 2 through 6, leaving a smile
in generation 7 and a paw print in
generation 8.

Using APL

Three generalizations about the Life
program point out APL's usefulness

in a wide variety of programming
applications. First, Life's simple data
structures allow use of APL's power¬
ful array manipulation facilities.

Few languages support data struc¬
tures as well as APL. Second, an
APL expression or operation applied
to matrix data automatically applies
to the entire matrix—whatever its

size. Finally, by dividing the pro¬
gram into several smaller modules
the user can concentrate on one pro¬
gramming task at a time. APL sup¬
ports this modularity with flexible
function declarations and use of
temporary variables.

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Macros that give the programmer
access to the power
of assembly language and the
convenience of structured programming

A ssembly language is a powerful
and useful tool; it can make a
computer do anything within that
computer's capability. The language
does have drawbacks, however. For
example, many instructions have to
be written to accomplish what
might be considered a single func¬
tion. These drawbacks led to the de¬
velopment of more convenient
higher-level languages in which a
single statement can represent many
assembly language instructions.

Some languages were developed
for specific purposes, as COBOL was
for business data processing and

Gregg L. Pettit is a data processing
programmer writing general-purpose software
for Harry and David Company, a subsidiary
of Bear Creek Corporation, located in
Medford, Oregon.

FORTRAN for statistical/engineer¬
ing purposes. Other languages, such
as PL/1, were developed for general
purposes. In the hands of expert
programmers these languages pro¬
vide excellent solutions to a wide
class of problems. Fiowever, for de¬
veloping utilities, general-purpose
programs, interactive graphic games,
etc., assembly language is probably
still the best choice because of its
access to the full range of the com¬
puter's capabilities.

Another reason for choosing
one of the "higher-level circus ani¬
mals" rather than assembly lan¬
guage is that most higher-level lan¬
guages provide the logical structures
needed for structured programming,
while assembly languages tradition¬
ally do not. One of the ways this ob¬

jection can be overcome is through
the use of a well-designed set of
macros that provides the kind of
control structures that are found in
higher-level languages.

In our data processing shop we
use a set of macros that provides
structured programming capability
for the IBM/370 assembly language.
Having found these macros advanta¬
geous, I set out to implement the IF
and the DO sets for use with the PC
Macro Assembler.

(Note: The names of the macros
in the IF macro set for the PC are
suffixed with an M because the PC
Macro Assembler reserves the IF,
ELSE, and ENDIF as conditional
pseudo-ops. The conditional pseudo¬
op IF gives the PC Macro Assembler
the capability to determine whether

September i984

151

Macros

Figure JL: Example of Flag Setting and Testing Instructions

CMP CL,0

;Compare the CL register to 0

JE LABI

;Te$t Flag Register

;If the CL register was not

;equal to 0 execution continues

Assembly

instructions

for CL not
equal to 0

;with these instructions.

JMP LAB2

;Jump unconditionally to LAB2

;Execution continues here if the

Assembly
instructions
for CL equal
to 0

;CL register was equal to 0.

LAB2:

source code contained within the
pseudo-op and its ENDIF is to be as¬
sembled based on the truth value of
some expression.)

Flag Setting and Testing

The architecture of computers today
provides two classes of instructions
by which the logic of an assembly
language program is accomplished.
Instructions in the first class set
some indicator that signals the re¬
sult of its execution. Those in the
second class test the indicator that
was set by the first class. Based on
the result of that test, execution ei¬
ther continues with the next se¬
quential instruction or is transferred
to some other instruction.

The indicator provided by the
8088 CPU is called the flags regis¬
ter. This register contains 12 flags or
bits, some of which are set on or off
by the result of actions by the first
class of instructions. Some examples
of these flag-setting instructions are
the compare instruction (CMP), an
arithmetical instruction such as sub¬
tract (SUB), etc.

The 8088 CPU also provides the
second class of instructions, such as

Jump Equal (JE), Jump Not Equal
(JNE), and Jump If Above or Equal
(JAE), which tests the current status
of the flags register and transfers ex¬
ecution to another instruction—that
is, execution jumps to another in¬
struction if the condition is true.
The logic of an assembly language
program is accomplished through a
combination of flag-setting and flag¬
testing instructions (see figure 1).

Advantages of Macros

One of the most important advan¬
tages gained in using the macros for
structured programming is that the
programmer need not explicitly
code the jump statements and their
destination labels,- the PC macros for
structured programming provide
this control implicitly. For instance,
each macro set contains a header
macro (IFM or DO) that generates a
jump on the condition desired to
the instructions to be executed for
that condition. If the necessary con¬
dition is not met by the flags regis¬
ter at the time the jump on con¬
dition is executed, the following un¬
conditional JMP (also generated by
the header macro) jumps to the

Figure Example of Logic
Provided by a DO WHILE and
ENDDO Combination

DO WHILE

,CMP,DL,

+7DW1:

CMP

CL,0

7DL1

JMP

70E1

+7DL1:

Assembler

Instructions

for

CL equal

zero

•

ENDDO

JMP

70W1

+7DE1:

trailer macro (ELSM, ENDIFM, or
ENDDO). See figure 2 for the kind
of logic provided by a DO WFFILE,
ENDDO combination. The state¬
ments in figure 2 that begin with a
" + were generated by the Macro
Assembler from the DO WHILE,
ENDDO macros. For further ex¬
amples of the logic generated by
IFM and DO macro sets, see table 1.

Coding time can be shortened
by removing the time-consuming
chore of inventing meaningful
labels or keeping track of the func¬
tion of non-meaningful labels. An¬
other way to reduce coding time is
by removing the possibility of mis¬
spelling labels or branching to the
wrong label. For those who like to
put their routines into flow charts,
further gains in efficiency can be
made by using decision paths that
correspond to the structured pro¬
gramming macros. These macros
can then be coded to follow the
flow chart and give the logical
structure on which to hang the de¬
tails of the code later. Following this
procedure will increase the likeli¬
hood of getting the logic of the rou¬
tine correct from the start and thus
will decrease debugging time.

152

PC Tech Journal

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Macros

Figure sj: An Illustration of the Readability of Assembly
Language Code Using the Macros for Structured Programming

Without Using Macros

CMP DL,0
JNE LBLNEl
CMP CL,0
JNE LBLNE2

code A

JMP FINIEQ

code B
JMP FINIEQ

code C

LBLNE2:

LBLNEl:

FINIEQ:

A programmer must be able to
determine the functions of the vari¬
ous parts of a routine—not to men¬
tion its overall function—if he is to
be able to debug that routine or
modify it later. Structured program¬
ming rnacros provide an advantage
in this area as well by making the
relationships between the various
sections of code more obvious.

Furthermore, since the PC's ma¬
cro assembly language allows in¬
structions to begin anywhere on a
line, by indenting nested IFMs and
DOs the programmer can get the
same readability as in a higher-level
language such as Pascal. A nested
set of IFMs and ENDIFMs is much
easier to follow than many CMPs
that have explicit JMPs to labels
and the corresponding labels. Figure
3 illustrates the readability of as¬
sembly code using the macros for
structured programming.

The increased readability can
be advantageous to programmers
who are accustomed to using

Using Macros

IFM CMP,DL,E,0
IFM CMP,CL,E,0

code A

ELSEM

code B

ENDIFM

ELSEM

code C

ENDIFM

Figure Two Open Strings of
IFMs in a Set of Nested IFMs

IFM E

1 NE

IFM B

ENDIFM (
IFM E

IFM NE

ENDIFM

(**)

IFM E

ENDIFM

(***)

(3) j

ENDIFM

(2)

ENDIFM

(1)

higher-level languages, such as
PL/1, Pascal, etc., because with the
structured programming macros,
programs will look more like those
created with a higher-level lan¬
guage. More importantly, with the
macros it is easier to structure as¬
sembly language programs in the

154

PC Tech Journal

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Macros

1. The

IFM Set:

2. The

DO Set;

Format

Example

Format

Example

CMP DL.BYTE PTR

DO INF

00 INF

IFH PI

IFM E

+7DW1:

+70WI:

JCP13 7IF1

+ JE ?IF1

JMP ?IS1

+ JMP ?IS1

code A

+7IF1

+7IF1:

OOEXIT PI

OOEXIT E

code A

+ -

JC‘P13 7DX10

JNE 70X10

JMP 70E1

ELSEM

+7DX10;

+70X10:

JMP ?IE1

+ JMP ?I£1

+7IS1:

code B

code 8

OOEXIT PI

OOEXIT NE

J["PX3 70X11

JE 70X11

ENDIFM

JMP 70E1

+7IE1:

+0X11:

+DX11:

***********************

code C

IFM P1,P2,P3,

,P4 IFM CMP,DL,E,0

ENDDO

PI P2,P4

+ CMP DL»0

JMP ?0W1

JMP 70W1

JCP33 ?IF1

+ JE 7IF1

+70E1:

+7DE1:

JMP 7IS1

+ JMP nsi

+7IF1

+7IF1:

***********************

00 WHILE,PI.P2,P3,P4

00 WHILE,CMP,OL.E.O

***********************

+7DW1:

PI P2,P4

CMP DL,0

IFM P1,P2,P3.P4,0R,P5,P6.P7,P8 IFM CMP.OL.E.O.OR.CMP.CL.E.O

JCP33 70L1

JE 70L1

PI P2,P4

+ CMP DL,0

JMP ?DE1

JMP 70E1

JCP33 7IF1

+ JE ?IF1

+7DL1:

+70L1:

P5 P6,P8

+ CMP CL,0

JCP73 7IF1

+ JE YIFl

code A

JMP 7IS1

+ JMP ?ISl

+7IF1;

+7IF1:

OOEXIT P1,P2,P3,P4

OOEXIT CMP.CL.E.O

PI P2,P4

CMP CL,0

JC’P33 70X20:

JNE 7DX20

**********************

JMP 7DEI

JMP 7DE1

same way as those using a higher-
level language are structured.

Drawbacks of Macros

Although these structured program¬
ming macros provide significant ad¬
vantages, they do have some disad¬
vantages. First and foremost, when¬
ever macros are used the compile
time is significantly increased. For
instance, one small test program of
150 statements took 1 minute to
compile. The same program written
with structured programming ma¬
cros (one INITDOIF, eight IFMs
with corresponding ENDIFMs, one
ELSEM, one DO WHILE, and one
DO UNTIL) took 2 minutes and 45
seconds. For some experienced pro¬
grammers this could be a deciding
factor against using these macros,
because the time gained in using

them may be lost in waiting for
compilations to complete.

One way to overcome this dis¬
advantage is to keep programs as
modular as possible by building a
module for each logical function re¬
quired by the program. Then when
changes are necessary only the mod¬
ules affected need to be recompiled,
and all the modules can be relinked
to form the revised program.

Another disadvantage of struc¬
tured programming macros is that
they will increase the size of the ob¬
ject and load modules. The pro¬
grammer functioning without struc¬
tured programming macros can
choose more efficiently how to
jump (short or long) and when to do
it. Long jumps (JMP) generate 3
bytes of code and short jumps (JE,
JNE, etc.) generate 2 bytes.

With the structured program¬
ming macros that accompany this
article, the jumps to the ELSEM,
ENDIFM, or ENDDO are always
long, so it will not matter how
many lines of code are between the

Z n weighing the advan¬
tages and disadvantages
of using structured pro¬
gramming macros, it seems
the advantages outweigh
the disadvantages.

header macro (IFM or DO) and its
matching ending macro (ELSEM,
ENDIFM, or ENDDO). The long
JMP generated by IFM, ELSEM, or
DO may be avoided if the program¬
mer generates that jump.

156

PC Tech Journal

+?0X20;

code

ENDOO

JMP

?OWl

ENOOO

JMP

?DWl

**********************

***********************

+?0W1:

DO UNTIL,PI,P2,P3,P4

PI PZ,P4
JC‘P33 ?Oll
JMP ?OEl

DO UNTIL,CMP,OL,E,0

CMP DL,0
JNE ?OLl
JMP ?D£1

DO ER0M,P1,P2,P3
MOV P1,P2

SUB P1,P3
J6E ?OLl
JMP ?DE1

***********************

00 FROM,PI

00 FR0M,DX

+?DWl:

DEC PI

DEC OX

JGE ?0LI

JGE ?0L1

JMP ?DE1

JMP 7DE1

+?DL1;

code A

+?DL1;

code A

ENOOO

JMP ’OWl

JMP ?DW1

+7DE1:

ENDDO

JMP

DO FROM,DX,10,2
MOV DX,10

SUB DX,2
J6E ?0L1
JMP ?OEl

ENOOO

JMP ?0W1

+70E1.

+?DE1:

***********************

DO FR0M,P1,P2,P3.P4

00 FROM,DX,10,:

+7DW1:

MOV

P1,P2

+7DW1;

MOV

DX,10

SUB

Pl,P3

SUB

OX,2

CMP

P1,P4

CMP

OX,6

JGE

7DL1

JGE

70L1

+7DL1;

JMP

7DE1

+70L1;

JMP

70EI

***********************

00 FROM,

,Pl,P2

00 FROM,

,0X.10

MOV

P1,P2

MOV

DX,10

+7DWI:

+70W1:

DEC

JGE

70L1

JGE

?0LI

JMP

70E1

JMP

70E1

+70L1:

+7DL1;

code A

ENDOO

JMP ?DW1

code A

ENODO

JMP ?0W1

+?DE1:

+?0E1:

**********************

code A

Note; Up to three separate- compare type statements may be connected
by ORs or AMDs. Under the current implementation ORs and ANOs may not
be mixed.

Recommendations

The advantages of using structured
programming macros seem to out¬
weigh the disadvantages. The disad¬
vantages discussed here might be
important to an experienced assem¬
bly language programmer who, in
any case, has probably developed
techniques with which he or she is
comfortable. For the beginner, how¬
ever, the advantages can significant¬
ly increase the utility of the PC's
macro assembly language.

In its current state, the IBM PC
macro assembly language is not
very friendly to the implementation
of structured programming macros.
The IBM 370 assembly language
has indexed global variables that
can be used to stack the references
to labels to which the header ma¬
cros must build jumps. When the

trailer macros are encountered in
the code these references can be un¬
stacked to build the actual labels
referenced in the header macro.

The PC's macro assembly lan¬
guage provides two pseudo-ops that,
although not as convenient as a
stack, nonetheless make it possible
to provide an elegant and efficient
implementation of the structured
programming macros. An inelegant
solution would be one in which the
programmer must provide, as an ar¬
gument to each header macro (IFM
or DO), a unique identifier that
could be used by the macro to cus¬
tomize the labels it needs to gener¬
ate. The two pseudo-ops are the
equal sign ( = ) and the IFDEF.

The equal-sign pseudo-op allows
the programmer to increment or
decrement counters, which are then

known globally—that is, to all the
macros defined in the source code.
This facility is used by the struc¬
tured programming macros to cus¬
tomize the labels referenced by the
header macros (IFM or DO) by ap¬
pending a number to each label. In
order to initialize the counters the
INITDOIF macro must be included
in the source code prior to the first
use of any IFM or DO macros. Note
that if the INITDOIF macro is not
used before any IFM or DO macros,
many error messages will be dis¬
played saying that various labels
have not been defined.

Because of the global counters
referred to above, no more than four
strings of DO or IFM macros may
be open at any one time. This is be¬
cause each time an open string is
created a counter for that string

September i984

157

Macros

must be saved and a new counter
begun. Currently there are only
eight counters implemented, four
for the IFM macro and four for the
DO macro. See figure 4 for an illus¬
tration of two open strings of IFMs
in a set of nested IFMs.

(In figure 4, the single asterisk
indicates the closing ENDIFM of
the last IFM in the first open string

of IFMs. The IFM following that
ENDIFM is assigned to be the sec¬
ond counter and begins the second
string of open IFMs. The double as¬
terisk indicates the closing ENDIFM
of the last IFM in the second string
of open IFMs. Following that, the
next IFM is assigned to be the third
counter, and the third string of
open IFMs is closed immediately by

the following ENDIFM, which is
indicated by the triple asterisk. The
numbers in parentheses indicate the
closing of each of their respective
strings of open IFMs.)

Fortunately, the limitation of
four open strings of DO or IFM ma¬
cros is the only restriction on nest¬
ing such macros; they can be nested
in any combination desired. In fact,
these two sets of. structured pro¬
gramming macros for the IBM PC
contain an enhancement not pro¬
vided by the same macros for the
IBM 370. If a PC IFM macro is
nested within a PC DO macro and a
PC DOEXIT macro is executed
within the range of the IFM macro
(that is, before the closing ENDIFM
macro), the DOEXIT macro will
jump to the proper ENDDO macro.
In the IBM 370 assembly language,
on the other hand, the structured
programming macros will generate
undefined symbols if DOEXIT ma¬
cros are executed within IF macros.

The second pseudo-op that is
necessary for an elegant solution to
implementing structured program¬
ming macros on the IBM PC is the
IFDEF or its complement, IFNDEF.
These pseudo-ops are used to deter¬
mine the next code produced by the
macro assembler based on whether
or not a symbol has been defined.
Whenever an IFM macro is used, a
JMP ?ISd: (where d stands for some
number) is produced. This jump
will be to either an ELSEM or an
ENDIFM macro, depending on
whether a matching ELSEM macro
appears in the code for the header
IFM macro. The ELSEM macro gen¬
erates a JMP ?IEd: to the ENDIFM
macro and a ?ISd: label to head the
code for the else condition.

The ENDIFM macro deter¬
mines whether to generate a ?ISd: or
a ?IEd: label. Under the current im¬
plementation of the structured pro¬
gramming macros, the ENDIFM
tests to see if the ?ISd; label has
been defined. If it has, the ENDIFM
generates a ?IEd: label; otherwise a
?ISd: label is generated. Surprisingly,

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158

PC Tech Journal

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Macros

the ?IEd: label is always generated
by the ENDIFM macro, whether or
not an ELSEM is included for the
header IFM macro. This piece of
magic is not documented in the
Macro Assembly Language manual.

mphsingly, the ?IEd:
label is always gener¬
ated by the ENDIFM

macro, whether or not an
ELSEM is included for the
header IFM Macro. This
piece of magic is not docu¬
mented in the Macro As¬
sembly Language manual
that is provided by IBM.

Apparently the reference to the
?ISd: label—that is, JMP ?ISd: —
generated by the header IFM
macro constitutes definition of the
symbol and not simply a reference.
However, here is the magic; when
no ?ISd: label is defined by an
ELSEM macro, the macro assembler
associates the reference to the ?ISd:
label generated by the IFM with
the ?IEd: label generated by the
ENDIFM. The ?IEd: label prints in
the expanded source listing of the
compiled program. The ?ISd: label
does not print in the expanded
source listing but does print in the
Symbol Table and the Cross Refer¬
ence, along with the ?IEd: label.

The set of macros found in list¬
ings 1 through 9 will allow the pro¬
grammer to take advantage of the
speed and power of assembly lan¬
guage without giving up the conve¬
nience of structured programming.

CIRCLE NO. 239 ON READER SERVICE CARD

PC Tech Journal

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Macros

Listing 1INITDOIF Macro

IFE 7CTI3X

7CTI3 = 7CTI

INITOOIF MACRO

7CTI3X = 1

?CT0=0

ELSE

?CTE=0

7CTI3 = 7CTI3 +1

?CT2X=0

7CTI3X = 7CTI3X +I

?CT3X=0

ENDIF

?CT4X=0

ELSE

?S1 = 0

IFE 7SI4

?S2 = 0

IFE 7CTI4X

?S3 = 0

7CTI4 = 7CTr

?S4 = 0

7CTI4X = 1

?CTI=0

ELSE

?CTI2X»0

7CTI4 = 7CTI4 +1

?CTI3X=0

7CTI4X = 7CTI4X +1

?CTI4X*0

ENDIF

?SI1 = 0

ELSE

?SI2 = 0

MJMP MP,7IFERR

?SI3 = 0

ENDIF

?SI4 = 0

ENDIF

ENDM

ENDIF

Listing 2 IFM Macro

IFM MACRO P1,P2,P3,P4,01,P5,P6,P7,P8,02,P9,P10,P11,P12

IFB <P2>

MJMP P1.7IF,X7CTI

MJMP MP,7IS,%7CTI

?CTA = 0

?CTI = ?CTI + 1

MLBL 7IF,%7CTI

ELSE

IFE ?SI1

PI P2,P4

?CTI1 = ?CTI

IFIDN <01>,<AND>

ELSE

IFE ?SI2

IFE ?CTI2X

7CTI2 = ?CTI

MJMP P3.7IA,%7CTI,%7CTA

MJMP MP,7IS.17CTI

MLBL 7IA,%7CTI,X7CTA

7CTA = 7CTA + 1

7CTI2X = 1

ELSE

P5 P6,PB

MJMP P7,7IA,%7CTI,%7CTA

?CTI2 = ?CTI2 +1

MJMP MP,7IS,%7CTI

7CTI2X = 7CTI2X +1

MLBL 7IA,%7CTI,%7CTA

ENOIF

7CTA = 7CTA + 1

ELSE

IFIDN <02>,<AND>

IFE 7SI3

P9 P10,P12

Have you heard?

During the last 12 months, thousands
of applications programmers dumped
dBASE II.

Why?

Because dBASE II hasn’t improved
a lick in years. And that makes it a
whole generation behind Q-PRO 4...
the 4th generation applications
development language for
microcomputers.

With dBASE II, all the original bugs,
complicated operations and absurd
restrictions (like only two open files)
are still there. dBASE II just can’t
make it for applications in 1984.

PR04 blows

spreail the won!

MJMP P11,?IF,%?CTI

MJMP MP,?IS,X?CTI

ENDIF

Listing 4 ENDIFM Macro

ENDIFM MACRO

MLBL ?IF,%?CTI

IFE 7CTI2X

ELSE

MALTLB ?IS,%?CTI1,?IE

MJMP P3,?IF,%?CTI

7CTI1 = 7CTI1 - 1

IFION <01>,<0R>

7SI1 = 1

P5 P6,P8

IFE 7CTI1

MJMP P7,?IF,%?CTI

7SI1 = 0

IFIDN <02>,<0R>

ENDIF

P9 P10,P12

ELSE

MJMP P11,?IF,%?CTI

IFE 7CTI3X

ENDIF

MALTLB 7IS,X?CTI2.?IE

ENDIF

7CTI2 = 7CTI2 - 1

MJMP MP,?IS.%?CTI

7CTI2X = 7CTI2X - 1

MLBL ?IF,%?CTI

7SI2 = 1

ENDIF

IFE 7CTI2X

ENDIF

7SI2 = 0

ENDM

ENDIF

ELSE

IFE 7CTI4X

sJ ■ Ilf 1 XvXC»V>'XVF

MALTLB ?IS,%7CTI3,7IE

7CTI3 = 7CTI3 - 1

ELSEM MACRO

7CTI3X = 7CTI3X - 1

IFE 7CTI2X

7SI3 = 1

?CTX =• 7CTI1

IFE 7CTI3X

ELSE

7SI3 = 0

IFE 7CTI3X

ENDIF

7CTX = 7CTI2

ELSE

MALTLB 7IS,X7CTI4,7IE

IFE 7CTI4X

7CTI4 = 7CTI4 - 1

7CTX = 7CTI3

7CTI4X = 7CTI4X - 1

ELSE

7SI4 = 1

7CTX = 7CTI4

IFE 7CTI4X

ENDIF

7SI4 = 0

ENDIF

MJMP MP,7IE,X7CTX

ENDIF

MLBL ?IS,%7CTX

ENDIF

ENDM

Apparently, Ashton Tate (the dBASE II
merchant) is gambling you don’t
know any better. It’s pitiful.

Well, we’ve been blowing the whistle
on Ashton...and Tate, too.

And you can spread the word.

Be one of the growing legions
that’s moving up to Q-PRO 4...
the complete 4th generation
applications development system
for microcomputers.

You can use Q-PRO 4’s super
efficient syntax to finish business
programs much faster. And the
extensive error trap and help screen
capabilities make the finished soft¬
ware products far more friendly, too.

As one convert put it, “O-PffO 4
has it all...the formatted data entry
field edits, and report generator are
absolutely superb.

“Any applications programmer still
struggling with outdated 3rd gener¬
ation data base managers or worse,
a 2nd generation language like
BASIC Is ripping himself off ”

So what are you waiting for? Here is
your chance to dump all the dBASE II
hassles and move up to Q-PRO 4...
the sensational 4th generation
language for faster, easier application
development.

You owe it to yourself, your career,
and your family to move up to
Q-PRO 4 now. It’s that good.

Attention Q-PRO 4 Hotshots.
Current version 3.0 includes Multi¬
key ISAM (true mainframe power).

Runs with PCDOS, MS-DOS, CP/M,
MP/M, CP/M86, MP/M86, TurboDOS,
MmmOST, MUSE, and NSTAR.

Single-user-$595; Multi-user-$795.
Author's lock up package available.
Finished applications are freely
transportable between operating
systems. Multi-user with true record
and file lock.

For Q-PRO 4 demonstration,
go to the nearest MicroAge store
or other fine dealer.

136 Granite Hill Court
Langhorne, PA 19047
(215) 968-5966 Telex 291 -765

CP/M, MP/M. CP/M86, and MP/M86 are trademarks of Digttal Research, TurboDOS, MmmOST,
MUSE, NSTAR. MS-DOS and PCDOS are trademarks of Software 2000, TeleVideo Systems,
O.S.M.. Molecular. Microsoft and IBM. respectively.

nuic n easi nmducts inc.

CIRCLE NO. 221 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Macros

Listing 5 DO Macro

Listing 6 DOEXIT Macro

DO MACRO TYP1,P1,P2,P3,P4

OOEXIT MACRO P1,P2,P3,P4

?CTD = ?CTD + 1

IFE 7CT2X

IFE ?S1

7CTX = 7CT1

?CT1 = ?CTD

ELSE

IFE 7CT3X

IFE ?S2

7CTX = 7CT2

IFE ?CT2X

ELSE

?CT2 = ?CTD

IFE 7CT4X

7CT2X = 1

7CTX = 7CT3

ELSE

?CT2 = ?CT2 +1

7CTX = 7CT4

?CT2X = ?CT2X +1

ENDIF

ELSE

ENDIF

IFE ?S3

IFB <P1>

IFE 7CT3X

MJMP MP,7DE,X7CTX

7CT3 = 7CTD

ELSE

7CT3X = 1

IFB <P2>

ELSE

MJMPN P1,70X,S7CTX,%7CTE

7CT3 = 7CT3 +1

MJMP MP,7DE,%7CTX

7CT3X = 7CT3X +1

MLBL 70X,%7CTX,%7CTE

ENDIF

7CTE = 7CTE +1

ELSE

IFE 7S4

PI P2,P4

IFE 7CT4X

MJMPN P3,70X,%7CTX,X7CTE

7CT4 = 7CTD

MJMP MP,7DE,%7CTX

7CT4X = 1

MLBL 7DX,t7CTX,X7CTE

ELSE

7CTE = 7CTE +1

7CT4 = 7CT4 +1

ENDIF

7CT4X = 7CT4X +1

ENDIF

ENDM

ELSE

MJMP MP,7D0ERR

ENDIF

Listing 7 ENDDO Macro

ENDIF

ENDDO MACRO

IFIDN <TYP1>,<INF>

IFE 7CT2X

MLBL 7DW,X7CTD

MJMP MP,7DW,X7CT1

ELSE

MLBL 70E,X7CT1

IFIDN <TYP1>,<WHILE>

7CT1 = 7CT1 - 1

MLBL 70W,X7CTD

7S1 = 1

PI P2,P4

IFE 7CT1

MJMP P3,7DL.%7CTD

7S1 = 0

MJMP MP,7DE,%7CTO

7CTE = 0

MLBL 7DL.X7CT0

ENDIF

ELSE

IFIDN <TYP1>,<UNTIL>

IFE 7CT3X

MLBL 7DW.%7CTD

MJMP MP,7DW.X7CT2

PI P2,P4

MLBL 7DE,X7CT2

MJMPN P3,7DL,%7CTD

7CT2 = 7CT2 - 1

MJMP MP,7DE,X7CTD

7CT2X = 7CT2X - 1

MLBL 7DL,%7CTD

7S2 = 1

ELSE

IFE 7CT2X

IFIDN <TYPl>.<FROM>

7S2 = 0

IFNB <P2>

ENDIF

MOV P1,P2

ELSE

ENDIF

IFE 7CT4X

MLBL 7DW,X7CTD

MJMP MP,7DW,17CT3

IFNB <P3>

MLBL 7DE,X7CT3

SUB P1,P3

7CT3 = 7CT3 - 1

ELSE

7CT3X = 7CT3X - 1

DEC PI

7S3 = 1

ENDIF

IFE 7CT3X

IFNB <P4>

7S3 = 0

CMP P1,P4

ENDIF

ELSE

MJMP GE,7DL,%7CTD

MJMP MP,70W,X7CT4

MJMP MP,70E,%7CTD

MLBL 7DE,X7CT4

MLBL 7DL,X7CTD

7CT4 = 7CT4 - 1

ELSE

7CT4X = 7CT4X - 1

MJMP MP,7BA0D0,%7CTD

7S4 = 1

ENDIF

IFE 7CT4X

ENDIF

7S4 = 0

ENDIF

ENDM

ENDIF

ENDM

PC Tech Journal

Now,

X-shell™ brings
Unix™ capability to your PC
for an amazingly low

Computers. You know at least two
things about them: One, they should
be a tool for solving your problems.
Not creating them. Two, you want
to spend as litde time as possible
on one.

X-shefl

Software Tools Padtage

That’s why Standard DataCom, Inc.
developed X-shell, a command
interpreter software tools package for
IBM PCs and MS-DOSTC-EX)S
operating systems.

X-shell helps your computer solve
your problems faster. Makes the
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your computer investment.

Proven
Unix Features

X-shell gives you Unix capability by
providing these proven Unix features:

1. Support for pipelines and
filters

2. Input & output redirection

3. Variable substitutions

4. Command substitutions

5. Filename expansion

6. Nested command files

7. Stmctured flow control:
iFthen/else, while/do/done,
until/do/done, case/esac,
for/do/done

Unix is a trademark of Bell Laboratories
X-shell is a trademark of Standard DataCom. Int.

Hardware Requirements
(vdiere you can save hard cash)
IBM PC or XT (or compatible)
256K bytes of RAM
2 Disk Drives—^Hard or Floppy
Since X-shell can be run using floppy
disk drives, you can save a bundle of
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What You GetFor $225

1. Complete Documentation,
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Reference Manuals.

2. Complete X-shell Software Tools
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4. More effective use of your PC.

How To Order X-shell

Software Requirements

PC-DOS version 1.1 or 2.0
Software Disk Emulator
Since X-shell mns on PC-DOS, it
supports existing PC-DOS software.

Over 40
Commands

X-shell’s commands
include:

Get the software package that gives
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415-775-8882 with your Visa or
MasterCard order, or for more
information.

Or ask your dealer.

basename

-strip extension from

num

-number lines

file name

-format files for printing

cat

-concatenate files

-pr directed to printer

-change directory

pwd

-print working directory

clear

-clear monitor screen

-remove files (delete)

emp

-compare files

-shell (command

comm

-output lines common

interpreter)

to two files

size

-size of object code

-copy files

sort

-sort numerically or

cpio

-file backup/archival

alphabetically

date

-get or set date and time

sum

-checksum file

echo

-echo arguments to stdout

tail

-output last lines of file

expand

-expand tabs into spaces

tee

-pipe fitting

expr

-string and arithmetic

test

-test file's or string's

evaluation

characteristics

false

-do nothing,

time

-determine time to execute

unsuccessfully

a command

find

-produce list of selected

-translate or delete

files

characters

grep

-search files for specified

true

-do nothing,

pattern

successfully

-hex file dumper

unexpand

-replace spaces with tabs

head

-output 1st lines of file

uniq

-remove duplicate lines

-sorted directory list

-count chars, words

-copy files to display

and lines

-movefiles (rename)

words

-output file 1 word per line

Dealer Inquiries Invited

Standard

DataCom^

Ask us about X.25

Standard DataCom, Inc.,

1550 California Street #6195,
San Francisco, CA 94109

CIRCLE NO. 299 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Macros

Listing 8 MLBL, MALTLB, and
MJMP Macros

MLBL MACRO Pl.CTl.CTZ
&P1&CT1&CT2:

ENDM

MALTLB MACRO P1,P2,P3
IFDEF iPl&P2
MLBL P3,P2
ELSE

MLBL P1,P2
ENOIF
ENOM

MJMP MACRO P1,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
IFNB <P3>

&P3&CT3: J4P1 4P2iCTl&CT2
ELSE

J&Pl &P2&CTUCT2

ENOIF

ENDM

Listing 9 MJMPN Macro

MJMPN MACRO PI,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
IFIDN <P1>,<E>

MJMP NE,P2,CT1,CT2,P3.CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<Z>

MJMP NZ,-P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<NE>

MJMP E,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT^

ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<NZ>

MJMP Z,P2.CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<BE>

MJMP NBE,P2,CT1,CT2.P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<NA>

MJMP A,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<NBE>

MJMP BE,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<A>

MJMP NA,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<AE>

MJMP NAE,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<NB>

MJMP B,P2,CTl,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<NAE>

MJMP AE,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<B>

MJMP NB,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<G>

MJMP NG,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<NLE>

MJMP LE,P2,CT1.CT2.P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<N6>

MJMP G,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<LE>

MJMP NLE,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN <P1>,<GE>

MJMP NGE,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

IFIDN

MJMP

ELSE

MJMP

ENDIF

ENaiF

ENDIF

ENDM

L,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3

GE,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3

NL,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3

NO, P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
<PI>,<NO>

O, P2,CT1.CT2,P3,CT3
<P1>,<NS>

S,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3

NS,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3

P, P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
<P1>,<P>

NP, P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3
<Pl>,<PO>

PE,P2.CT1,CT2,P3,CT3

PO,P2,CTl,CT2,P3,CT3

C,P2,CT1,CT2,P3,CT3

NC,P2,CTl,CT2,P3,CT3

MP,?BADOP,CTl

166

PC Tech Journal

No Head is Better
than One!

Bubble Storage for the PC and PC XT.

Bubble memory combines the
best features of disk and solid state
memory with extreme reliability.
Unlike a floppy disk, it's entirely solid
state with no moving parts. This
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fumes, and vibration. And, unlike
normal memory, it doesn't lose data
when the power goes off.

Now you can enjoy all the
advantages of bubble memory
combined with thefamous Pure Data
quality and reliability for your
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• PDIB-128 provides 128 KBytes in one
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• PDIB-384 provides 384 KBytes in one
slot

• Not affected by power failure

• Faster than a floppy disk

• Extremely reliable

• Standard DOS 2.0 disk-type device

• Compatible with all DOS software

• No patching of any system files

• Password option for computer
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• Password cannot be bypassed by
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• Comprehensive diagnostics and other
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• Fully illustrated installation and
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• Technical support hot-line

• Guaranteed 48 hour service

• Bubble uses 2 I/O addresses and no
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• Interrupts are supported but not
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• DMA is supported but not required

• On-board EPROM socket

• Pure Data quality and reliability

• No moving parts

PDIB-384

Pure
Data Ltd

860 Denison Street,

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a! (416) 475-2424 2(416)498-

PDIB-128

1616

Highland Computer Corporation, Keysoft International,
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108,

Pure Data products are available through.

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DATA SYSTEMS Telephone (214) 620-8000
P.O. Box 815155, Dallas, Texas 75381

IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation,

CIRCLE NO. 190 ON READER SERVICE CARD

CIRCLE NO. 204 ON READER SERVICE CARD

9 TimCK IlFE

cmmiouER

New 1/2" Tape
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TC-PC is a high performance tape
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• Capable of reading and writing
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• Comprehensive software tools
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• 8 bit parallel recording with parity
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• Compatible with most nine track
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• Operates with tape drive speeds up
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• Economically priced at $880
For more information on the TC-PC,
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Diskette Exchange Software

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CIRCLE NO. 196 ON READER SERVICE CARD

IMPROVE YOUR PC MEMORY

Now you can organize your copies of

PC TECHlOURNAL _

Now youi magazines can be a handsome addition to your decor,
well organized, and easy to find, thanks to these durable li¬
brary-quality cases or binders. They’re made of luxury-look
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CIRCLE NO. 152 ON READER SERVICE CARD

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CIRCLE NO. 120 ON READER SERVICE CARD

ASSEMBLERS

WITHOUT

LCERS

macro techniques
for ASM-86

M achine-language program¬
ming is often a painful chore
for even the most experienced pro¬
grammers. Assemblers are noto¬
riously tricky, unforgiving beasts
that embody all the most frustrating
characteristics of dealing with com¬
puters. However, higher-level lan¬
guages often fail to give the user
access to the full power of the ma¬
chine, and they produce less-than-
optimum code, costing the user lots
of time and/or making the program
much larger than strictly necessary.

Sometimes the efficiency and
total control of assemblers is re¬
quired. One way to get that control
on the IBM PC without descending
to the masochistic depths plumbed
by hard-core assembly hackers is
with ASM-86's macro feature.

the language you want to speak
without introducing the inefficien¬
cies of a compiler or interpreter.
Unlike higher-level languages, ma¬
cros won't directly help you reduce
the bug vulnerability of your pro¬
grams, but they can help you reuse
debugged instruction sequences.

The macro features of ASM-86
are documented in chapter 5 of the
Macro Assembler manual, on pages
5-48 to 5-69; conditional pseudo-ops
are documented on pages 5-44 to
5-48. The ASM-86 manual is not a
masterpiece of clarity overall, and
the sections on pseudo-ops and ma¬
cros are particularly obscure. By the
time you've read this article,
though, you'll be able to make the
assembler do wonders. Let's start

Eric S. Raymond

Shorthand

A macro is a way of replacing one
piece of text with another. With
macros you can invent a shorthand
that brings your assembler closer to

Eric Raymond is a software designer
working on UNIX applications for Rabbit
Software of Malvern, PA. His background is
in artificial intelligence research, language
design, and software engineering tech¬
niques. He is writing a book on portability
under UNIX. He owns a PC with a very
low serial number.

September i984

173

ASM-86

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with an example of what can be
done using macros.

In 8088 machine language one
instruction can move data from reg¬
ister to register, or from memory to
register, or from register to memory,
but not directly from memory to
memory. If you've gotten tired of
coding things like

MOV AX, SOURCEWORD
MOV DESTINATION, AX

when what you want is

MOV DESTINATION,
SOURCEWORD

then you're ready for a macro. Put
figure 1 in front of your program.
This tells the assembler to substi¬
tute the lines between MACRO and
ENDM anywhere it sees MOVE in
the program. D and S are like func¬
tion arguments in a higher-level
languages: they tell ASM-86 where
to substitute the tokens it sees on
the line after MOVE. Note, by the
way, the use of semicolons to start
comments that shouldn't be in¬
cluded in the expansion. Macros,
like assembler code, should be
heavily commented for readability.

Then you can write

ADD ALPHA, 2 ;ALPHA is a
memory location
MOVE SCRATCH, ALPHA ;So is
SCRATCH
AND CX, SCRATCH

and the assembler will see:

ADD ALPHA, 2
MOV AX, ALPHA
MOV SCRATCH, AX
AND CX, SCRATCH

You can now view MOVE as an
extra assembler instruction, but
you're in trouble if you use it some¬
where that destroys an important
AX value. This illustrates the major
pitfall of macros: they can hide
nasty side effects. One way to fix
this is found in figure 2. Note that
using a macro for an instruction se¬
quence doesn't generate any less
code than writing the instructions
out by hand; it just saves time and
may make the program more read¬
able. ASM-86 expands all macros
during pass 1.

MOVE still has a problem. If ei¬
ther D or S are registers, then four
instructions have been generated

PC Tech Journal

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ASM-86

ragment ■

MOVE MACRO ■;
- ■ isREG
ISREG ■:
IF

MOV •

. . ELSE ■ ■■

■_ ' ■ PUSH .

MOV

■ V.' MOV

■ V ■ POP
/ EN0IF-;
ENDH -

o,s

vDR.D

SR,S

(DR OR SR)
D.S

■!:AX

. AX,0
S.AX
AX

;Anything-to-anything move

;0R<-0,1 as D is/is not a register

jDS^-O,! as S is/is not a register

;If 0 or S is a register

;do a MOV

;else

; save,AX

;use it as scratch pad
;finish the move ' .

;restore AX

;end of if .;.■ ■■

;End of MOVE

. . ■

MACRO'-'' RES.ARG-^S'iRES <- 0 or I as ARG is/not a register

RES =0 ;;Start off assuming it's not

IRP . X, <AH,8H,CH,DH,AL,8L.eL,0L.AX,BX,CX.0X,SI,0I,8P,SP>

- ■ IFIDN <X>,ARG>

;;If it's in the list ...

RES -s

;;return 1 i'-;. ' "

ENOIF ■

■ . ;;End of test ■

■ ENDM ■

^ ;;End of IRP ■

^ ENDM

_;;End of ISREG

1 Figure 6: CASE Macro

CASE MACRO KEY, VALS, LABELS
. = 0

X.VALS .
= X+1

L,X, LABELS
y-'; V.X,VALUES
KEY.v
I

IRP

NTH
NTH ■
CMP
JZ

ENOH
■ ENDM

;CASE statement for assembler ■

;Initialize value counter
;Loop through key-values list
;counting from 1 to its length.
;Get the nth labeV to L
;Get the nth label to V -
jGenerate code to see if KEY^V
;dnd jump to L if true
; then exit the loop
; End of CASE

.a-ti

Figure 7: INTFUN Macro

■function inkey:
INKEY PROC

IHTFUN
TEST
V Vl ■ 'JNZ ■

; v'.'' ADD ■
XCHG .
NORMAL: RET '
INKEY ■ ENOP

char'i““- the Pascal header
FAR ;Return char in AL, no echo.
16H,0 -jChar in AL, scan code in AH
AL.AL ',Is character null? .

NORMAL ;If not, we're done ■.■■■■
AH,BOH ;If so, meta the scan code ■
AL,AH and arrange to return it.

where one would do. To fix this,
conditionals must be used (see man¬
ual pages 5-44 and 5-45). The logic
we want can be seen in figure 3.

Fortunately, macros can call
other macros. To test a macro to see
if a parameter is a register, use the
fragment in figure 4.

To write ISREG (see figure 5),
introduce the IRP operator, which
permits you to loop through a list of
arguments. This list is bounded by
angle brackets and treated like a sin¬
gle argument; theO act like
quotes. IRP also requires a dummy-
variable argument to hold the list

member it's currently looking at.

I use X. Modularizing code into
small functional pieces pays off in
ease-of-maintenance and reusability.
ISREG and MOVE can now be put
in a macro utilities file (INCLUDEd
when needed), and both of these
macros can also be reused as build¬
ing blocks for other macros.

It should be obvious by now
that ASM-86 macro is a full pro¬
gramming language; it can express
conditionals and loops. Consider the
CASE macro in figure 6. It depends,
of course, on NTH, which is left as
an exercise for the reader (hint: look

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ASM-86

at the IRP loop in ISREG again). If
you have the correct answer,

CASE AX, <1, 2, 3, 4>, <PROCA,
PROCB, PROCC, PROCD>

automatically generates a dispatch
table based on the value of AX.
Macros can enable you to turn your
ASM-86 into something resembling
a structured programming language.
Once you've written something like
CASE and verified that it expands
correctly, you never have to hand
code a dispatch table again. Further¬
more, when you reuse macros that
you know have worked you can
have more confidence in your code.

Macro System for
ASM Routines

Macros don't provide the safety net
a good compiler or interpreter does,
so assembler-to-compiler interfacing
is important. There are painless
ways to use macros to get Microsoft
Pascal, Lattice C, and other high-lev¬
el languages to talk to ASM-86.
Generating the stereotyped code for
assembler-to-compiler interfacing is
what such macros do best.

Listing 1 is a macro system that
helps write ASM-86 routines that
are automatically accessible to Pas¬
cal and C. Using this, you can ar¬
range for your service code to take
any number of value, CONST, or
VAR arguments, do anything with
them, and then load VAR argu¬
ments back out. You can even ar¬
range for your code to return the
value of any register through AX or
the value on the carry-flag—all
without hand-coding a single line of
assembly language.

Listing 1 can teach you ad¬
vanced macro techniques useful for
assembler systems-level program¬
ming. Ancestors of these were used
to generate assembler support for a
screen I/O package that features
multiple independently-scrolled
windows; it is in production use in
a successful communications pro¬
gram. The following examples of
the macro system are working rou-

178

CIRCLE NO. 198 ON READER SERVICE CARD

PC Tech Journal

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ASlVi-86

Figure 8: Screen-writing Procedure

s^rocedure write_screen(char c-; byte att)p— —

:•■■- ■ %0UT ■ WRITE^SCREEN Z ■
WRITE_$CREEN PROC FAR

-.Write char with attribute & advance cursor,
-.noticing screen boundaries.

PROLOG <CHAR, ATTR> - .

-.Make sure BH contains current display page number '
INTFUN lOH.lS

MOV . . CL,AH ;Save the

;screen width-
;as well. '. '

Save CX away
because cursor
bounds get put
in it.

Restore screen '
width to CL

-.Get the arguments

■ j^4\

MOV DL.O

CMP ■. ■ DH,24 •

j ■ JNZ ' :■ :i

;If we*re here, have to set cursor & scroll the
-.window 1 1 ine up

-.Else go to left column

SSETNSCROLL: INTFUN

MOV

vNow do the scroll up

10H,2

■ At,I

-.First, set cursor . :■
jWant to scroll l-,line up

;Redd cursor position into DH, OL

PUSH

10H,3

SSCROLL:

SFUNCRET;
SLFP: ■

MOV
. MOV
MOV
■ MOV
^M0V.
I NT

■ AH,6 ■ ■

DH,24 ■ ■-■.■■ ^.V :■■■■ ■

OL.CL ;Get the screen width
. CX.O

" 8H,07H ;Use normal blanks
lOH ;Execute pending function

EPILOG

jif we're here, just need to bump row number
SBUMPROW: ' INC ' OH ' ■

SSETNRET: MOV AH,2

JMP SFUNCRET

;Here‘s the carriage-return processing (with auto-line-feed).

GETVAL

AL.CHAR ;The character

SCRP: ■ MOV

DL.O

■ ^Take cursor to ^

GETVAL

BL.ATTR ;The attribute ■

’ ■ ^

-.left margin ■ ■■

handle special characters

CMP .

OH,24 ;Are we on last line?

CMP

AL.OAH ;A line feed?

JNE

SBUMPROW ;If no, bump row

SLFP ;Must ignore them.

JMP

SSETNSCROLL ;else set cursor

CMP

■. AL.ODH - ;A carriage return?

^ ■ ■-=,& scroll :■■■.■

: '/ scRp. ^--/ : . ■ -

%0UT_

;Otherwise write the char normally

PUSH CX ;Save the screen width

MOV CX.l char only ;

INTFUN 10H,9 ;Write char & attribute-:

■ ■■■■:' ' pop; cx

;Position the cursor for next char
INC OL

CMP 0L,CL ;Are we at EOL?

SSETNRET -.If not, set cursor

■ WRITE SCREEN

;procedure read_cpos(dpage: sint; var i, j, ctop, cbot: ;sint)
SYS’'" REA0_CP0S, lOH, 7, <BH, *DH, *DL, *CH, *CL> / > :

tines taken from this video support
package. Explanations of the mac¬
ros' functions will be given after¬
wards.

Non-Echoing Keyboard

Input (INTFUN)

The return conventions of the INT
16/ AH = 0 call that MS-DOS uses
for keyboard input make life unnec¬
essarily difficult. Instead of mapping
the function and special keys into
the 128+ high half of the ASCII
character set and returning a single
byte in AL, it returns 0 in AL and a
byte in AH; MS-DOS aids and abets
this by requiring a second key read
to detect the one keystroke. Macros
can be used to give Pascal an IN¬
KEY function that acts rationally
and serves as a real-world example
of the use of the simplest of these
macros, INTFUN (see figure 7).

Writing to the Screen
WITH A Highlight
(PROLOG/EPILOG)

Another poorly designed feature in

the BIOS is found in the code for
INT 1 OH / AH - 14 (WRITE_TTY),
line 4694 of the BIOS figure in the
Technical Reference manual (line
4965 in the revised version). If this
had read MOV AH, 9 WRITE_TTY
would use BL as a screen highlight
on the monochrome monitor as well
as on the color monitor (see figure
8). Note the use of "named" argu¬
ments and GETVAL; though this
example doesn't show it, PROLOG
also accepts register-name argu¬
ments that act in SYS below (see the
figure comments for details). Also
note that EPILOG need not be at the
physical end of the function text, as
long as all exits go through it.

Reading the Cursor
Position (SYS)

As you can see in figure 9, SYS calls
PROLOG and EPILOG to generate a
call to interrupt lOH, AH = 7 sur¬
rounded by stack fetches and loads
that bring the first argument of the
call into BH and load the results
(which live in the CX and DX pairs)

out to Pascal VAR arguments.

INTFUN is a simple straight-
line macro for calling in-ROM BIOS
functions. It's there mainly to be
used by SYS, which is a specialized
macro that uses PROLOG/EPILOG
for getting at the ROM and DOS
service routines. If you bracket an
assembler service routine with PRO¬
LOG and EPILOG they'll generate
the argument fetches and stores nec¬
essary to make it look like a Pascal
procedure or function.

Notice that the line EPILOG
MACRO REG is inside the scope of
the PROLOG macro definition. This
is an example of a macro-defining
macro. Each time PROLOG is ex¬
panded it redefines EPILOG.

This is necessary because of an
inconsistency in ASM-86. Angle-
bracketed argument lists are treated
like single arguments in macro
headers, but they can't be passed to
a symbol. The assignment

REGLIST = <AX, BX, CX, DX>

fails because a comma is defined to

180

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ASM-86

end an angle-bracketed quote. This
is documented, so it's a design error
rather than a bug. It means that any
time you want to pass one of these
lists out of a macro you'll have to do
so by defining another macro with
the list expanded inside it.

I call this trick lambda-passing
after a similar technique used in the
language LISP. Usually, as here,
you'll define a dummy with a nice
name that does nothing but call the
real receiving macro (ENDF) with
its arguments filled in. This lan¬
guage also needs an operator that re¬
places the symbol or expression fol¬
lowing it with its expansion or eval¬
uation. The percent sign does part
of this, but the documentation on it
is confusing; what it boils down to
is that it can be used only on num¬
eric-valued expressions appearing as
actual arguments to a macro call.

PROLOG calls ACOUNT to
count the number of each kind of
argument the generated routine will
have. It generates a frame pointer
save (see below), then calls INARG
on each argument to generate what¬
ever code is needed to access it,
using GETVAL and the EPILOG
needed to balance it. EPILOG calls
OUTARG to generate code for each
VAR argument (OUTARG in turn
calls SETVAR). Next it checks to
see if you wanted a function return;
if so it uses MOV ACC to put it in
the right place. Finally it generates
a frame pointer restore and the ap¬
propriate RET instruction.

GETVAL can be used directly
to fetch, off the stack and to a regis¬
ter in mid-routine, arguments that
PROLOG was not supposed to get.
Note that it doesn't fetch CONST
or VAR arguments, just their loca¬
tions. SETVAR can also be used di¬
rectly to store out VAR arguments.
These macros use the %OUT pseu¬
do-op to report on what they're do¬
ing. This is necessary, because
ASM-86 macro-expansion is fairly
slow on the PC. This makes it easier
to catch errors in calling sequence
specifications.

PC Tech Journal

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ASM-86

Speaking Other
Languages

These macros should be usable with
many languages other than Pascal-
86 with minor changes. In fact,
there are only three aspects of an
8088 compiler's argument-passing
conventions that are likely to vary
from this: stack argument order, the
context saved during routines, and
where return values are put.

Pascal-86, BASIC, and many
other compilers put arguments on
the stack as they're evaluated (left-
to-right) so that the last one on be¬
comes the first to be popped off.

This is the major complicating in¬
fluence on the PASCAL.MAC code;
in particular, it's the reason ARITY
has to be computed before any argu¬
ment-passing code can be generated.
Lattice C, on the other hand, pushes
its arguments in reverse order. This
allows them to be accessed in a
more natural way (it also helps that
C has only value arguments). The
analog of PASCAL.MAC for Lattice
C is thus simpler, and is left as an
exercise for the reader.

Most 8088 compilers require
only BP to be preserved during sub¬
routine execution (the instruction
set was designed in such a way that
BP is the only reasonable choice for
argument frame pointer). Thus the
PUSH BP in PROLOG and POP BP
in EPILOG should be sufficient. If a
compiler you're using requires
more, simply add PUSH and POP
instructions adjacent to the ones
already there in the macro. Almost
all compilers use their hardware's
accumulator (AL/AX on the 8088)
to pass back return values. Only
MOV ACC should need to be modi¬
fied if you run into an exception.

Macros offer a practical way of
automating the interface between
compiled languages and assembly
code. They enable you to keep your
application logic in a development
language while having maximum
control of the machine. I

184

PC Tech Journal

Assemblers + Macros vs. Macro-assemblers

The ASM-86 macro language is power¬
ful, but also clumsy and poorly de¬
signed in spots. Why isn't the design
cleaner? The main reason is simple his¬
torical inertia. Most assemblers have
been written by people such as hard¬
ware developers—people who are not
primarily language designers and tend
to be very conservative in their meth¬
ods. Their traditional way to write a
macroassembler is to do the code gen¬
erators and symbol-table maintenance
first, then graft a macro language on
top of it or as a pre-processing stage.
Most of the resulting macro languages
have been afterthoughts thrown to¬

gether to support a particular narrow
set of features (often one copied from
a previous assembler).

It's actually easier and better to
build the macro language first. As¬
sembler op codes and many data pseu¬
do-ops can then become macros that
take their operands as arguments and
expand into calls to one of a small
handful of machine-code generators,
one for each instruction class. The re¬
maining pseudo-ops can "expand" to
nothing, manipulating the symbol ta¬
ble as a side-effect.The macro expan¬
sion process supplies the entire control
structure of the assembler's first pass,

resulting in a tight, clean, and well-in¬
tegrated design. The macro features
will become terse and effective, be¬
cause the assembler writer will be us¬
ing them all through the expansions.

Many cross-assemblers (i.e., assem¬
blers that generate code for a different
processor than the one they run on)
are built this way, as are a few main¬
frame and minicomputer assemblers.

As micro-based software took become
more sophisticated this situation will
probably change.

— Eric Raymond

Listing 1: PASCAL.MAC

.XLIST

. ***********************************************************************

;PASCAL.MAC

;(C){P)Copyr1ght 1983 by Eric S. Raymond

; These macros are useful for generating ASM-86 routines that

; do stack-based argument handling, and can thus be treated like

; Pascal-86 or BASIC routines once declared in an interface or

EXTERNed to. Note that they must be PUBLICed and live in a
; SEGMENT PUBLIC PARA 'CODE' to be accessible to the linker.

; These macros should work correctly with any compiler that

; a) only requires BP to be saved during subroutine calls, and

; b) pushes arguments left to right (last given is last pushed).

;I) General service routines

; To generate a routine with a given profile of value and VAR

; args and a given service routine, write the following;

;[name3 PROC

; PROLOG <argl, argZ,...argn>, tr

; [service code]

EPILOG reg
;[name] ENDP

; If A stands for an accumulator name, argk may have the form

; A -- argument k is a value argument to be moved to A

; #A -- argument k is a CONST argument (input only)

; *A -- argument k is a VAR argument (output only)

; (?A -- argument k is a VAR argument (input and output)

; For these four cases, PROLOG fetches argument k to A and EPILOG

; automatically stores A to it (if it's VAR).

; If argk has none of these forms, it is simply equated to k

; in the assembler's symbol tables, and can be used with GETVAL,

; GETVAR, and SETVAR to give the effect of named arguments.

; If a register reg is specified, that register will be loaded

; into AL or AX (depending on length) just before exit and Pascal

; will see it as a return value. If reg is CY, AL will be loaded

; with 1 or 0 as the carry flag is on or off just before exit.

; Since the stack loads don't change the state of the flags, AL

; may pass out a VAR argument as usual before this.

; By default SI is used as a scratch register for locations of

; VAR arguments. This will lose if a VAR or CONST argument occurs

; after SI in the argument list. The optional second argument tr

; of PROLOG may be used to specify another scratch register; it

; may be SI, DI or BX and is passed to GETVAR and SETVAR.

;II) GETVAL, GETVAR and SETVAR

; The macros GETVAL reg, k and GETVAR reg, k will load a register

; from the kth value or location argument respectively. The macro

; SETVAR k, reg will store REG to the kth by-location argument.

; GETVAR and SETVAR take an optional third argument which sets

; the location scratch register as described above.

;III) WITHl, WITH2

; The macros WITHl and WITH2 allow any instruction that will take

the appropriate addressing mode to be applied to two operands,
one of which is a stacked argument represented by its name. For
example:

WITH2 CMP, AX, FOO

expands to CMP AX, [BP+X*2] where X is the stack offset of the
argument named by FOO. WITHl does this to its second argument,
so WITHl CMP, FOO, AX would be equivalent to the above.

IV) SYS function calls

A macro has been included for generating interfaces to the
PC's BIOS and DOS interrupt servers. With this macro,

SYS name, int, func, <argl, arg2,... argn>, reg, tr

generates source for a Pascal-accessible routine that executes
PROLOG, does an INT (int) with (func) in AH, and then does
EPILOG. Arguments in the bracketed list are loaded and returned
as in PROLOG/EPILOG. Optional args reg and tr are as above.

SYS will PUBLIC the generated function, though this won’t
be obvious in an .XALL listing since PUBLIC generates no code.

A**********************************************************************

.XCREF

INTFUN

MACRO

INTN, FUNCN

;;Call a BIOS function

MOV

AH, FUNCN

;; with given function number

INT

INTN

;; and given interrupt

ENDM

ACOUNT

MACRO

ARG

;;Counts arguments

IRP

REG, <AL,AH,BL,BH,CL,CH,DL,DH,AX,BX,CX,DX,SI,DI>

IFIDN

If it's a value argument

INCT

= INCT + 1

bump the input argument count

EXITM

then exit the IRP

ENDIF

else continue list check

IFIDN

If it's a CONST argument

INCT

= INCT + 1

bump the input argument count

EXITM

then exit the IRP

ENDIF

else continue list check

IFIDN

If it's an output-only VAR arg

OUTCT

= OUTCT + 1

bump the output argument count

EXITM

then exit the IRP

ENOIF

else continue list check

IFIDN

If it's a VAR argument

lOCT

= lOCT + 1

bump the input/output arg count

EXITM

then exit the IRP

ENDIF

else continue list check

LACT

= LACT + 1

It's a named argument

ENDM

End of IRP

ENDM

End of ACOUNT

GETVAL

MACRO

Z, N

;;

;Load Nth value arg to Z

MOV

Z, [BP+2*(ARITY-

-N)+6] ;

;Move parameter to register

ENDM

;End of GETVAL

GETVAR

MACRO

Z, N, T

;Load Z to Nth VAR argument

IFB

<T>

;

;If no transport reg specified

September i984

185

ASM-86

MOV SI, CBP+2*(ARITY'

-N)+6] ;; fetch parameter address

MOV Z, [SI]

;; and load to where it points

ELSE

;;Else transport register given

MOV T, CBP+2*(ARITY-N)+6] ;; fetch parameter address

MOV Z, [T]

;; and load to where it points

ENOM

;;End of GETVAR

INARG MACRO FML, K, TR

;;Generate stack fetch for arg K

;;First check the null case

IFB <FML>

;;If blank.

%0UT K : skipped

;; note: stack slot is skipped

EXITM

;; and exit INARG

ENOIF

;;End of blank check

;;Now look for a matching register argument

ISR = 0

;;No register match yet found

IRP REG, <AL,AH,BL,BH,CL,CH,OL.DH,AX,BX,CX,OX.SI,OI.SP>

;-.Handle value arguments

IFIDN <FML>, <REG>

;;If it's a value argument

ISR = 1

;; note that it matched

GETVAL REG, K

;; fetch it

XOUT K : VAL REG

;; and show it in the listing

EXITM

;; then exit the IRP

ENOIF

;; else continue list check

;;Handle CONST arguments

IFION <FML>, <#&REG>

;;If it's CONST

ISR = 1

;; note that it matched

GETVAR REG, K, TR

;; fetch Kth location arg

XOUT K : CONST REG

;; and show it in the listing

EXITM

;; then exit the IRP

ENOIF

;; else continue list check

;;Handle two-way VAR arguments

IFIDN <FML>, <@4REG>

;;If it's VAR

ISR = 1

;; note that it matched

GETVAR REG, K, TR

;; fetch Kth location arg

XOUT K : VAR REG

;; and show it in the listing

EXITM

;; then exit the IRP

ENOIF

;; else continue list check

;;Handle output VAR arguments

IFION <FML>, <*&REG>

;;If it's an output-only arg

ISR = 1

;; note that it matched

XOUT K : VAR REG (out

only) ;; show it in the listing

EXITM

;; then exit the IRP

ENOIF

;; else continue list check

ENOM

;;End of IRP

;;If no matching register arg, equate name to arg number

IFE ISR

;;No register argument match

FML = K

;-.Equate name to arg value

XOUT K : FML = K

;;Report the action

ENOIF

;;End of symbol check

ENOM

;;End of INARG

PROLOG MACRO ARGS, TR

-.Process input arguments

.XCREF ;

;Oon't need generated code to be CREFed

ARITY = 0 ;

-.Start with 0 total arguments

INCT = 0

-.Start with 0 input args

OUTCT = 0

-.Start with 0 output args

lOCT = 0 ;

jStart with 0 input/output args

LACT = 0

-.Start with 0 named arguments

IRP X, <ARGS> ;

;Count the flavors of arguments

ARITY = ARITY + 1

-, ARITY counts all four kinds

ACOUNT X ;

; Now count the individual kinds

ENOM

;End of argument count loop

PUSH BP

-.Save that frame pointer

IF INCT+IOCT+LACT ;

-,If there are input args

MOV BP, SP

; set up for stack access

C = 0 ;

; initialize argument count

IRP X, <ARGS>

; and loop through the argument list

C = C + 1

; using C to count from 1 to ARITY

INARG X, XC, TR ;

; generating stack fetches as we go

ENOM

-.End of argument-list processing loop

ENOIF

-.End of 'if there are input args'

EPILOG MACRO REG

;Generate EPILOG macro

ENOF <ARGS>. REG, TR ;

;Have it call ENOF with ARGLIST

ENOM ;

-.End of generated macro

.CREF ;

;Restore CREF

ENOM ;

-.End of PROLOG

SETVAR MACRO T

;-.Store Z to Nth VAR argument

IFB <T>

;;If no transport reg specified

MOV SI, [BP+2*(ARITY-N)+6] ;; fetch parameter address

MOV [SI], Z

;; and load to where it points

ELSE

;;Else transport register given

MOV T, [BP+2*(ARITY-N)+6] ;; fetch parameter address

MOV [T], Z

;-, and load to where it points

ENOM

-,;End of SETVAR

OUTARG MACRO K, FML, TR

;;Gen stack load for Kth VAR arg

IFNB <FML>

;;If blank, do nothing

IRP REG, <AL,AH,AX,BL,BH,BX,CL,CH,CX.OL,DH,OX>

IFIDN <FML>, <*&REG>

-,;If it's an output-only arg

SETVAR K, REG, TR

;; store to its location

EXITM

;-, then exit the IRP

ENOIF

;; else continue list check

IFIDN <FML>, <@&REG>

;;If it's a VAR argument

SETVAR K, REG, TR

;; store to its location

EXITM

;-, then exit the IRP

ENOIF

;; else continue list check

ENOM

;;End of IRP

ENOIF

;-,Skip if <ARG> is blank

ENOM

;;End of OUTARG

MOVACC MACRO REG

;;Gen code to move REG to AL/AX

XOUT REG value returned ;;Show it in the listing

IFDIF <RETREG>, <AX>

;-,Skip the rigamarole if it's AX

IFDIF <RETREG>, <AL>

;; likewise if it's AL

IRP X, <AH,CH,DH,BH,CL,DL,BL> ;-,Try 8-bit registers

IFION <REG>, <X>

;-,If REG is one

MOV AL, REG

;; then move it to AL

EXITM

;; then exit the IRP

ENOIF

;; else try the next one

ENOM

;;End of 8-bit register IRP

IRP X, <CX,OX,BX,SI,DI,BP,SP> ;;Try 16-bit registers

IFIDN <REG>, <X>

;;If REG is one

MOV AX, REG

;-, then move it to AX

EXITM

;; then exit the IRP

ENOIF

;; else try the next one

ENOM

-,;End of 16-bit register IRP

IFIDN <REG>, <CY>

;;Should carry flag be returned?

XOR AL, AL

;; If so, zero AL

RCR AL

;; and rotate in the carry bit

ENOIF

;-,End of carry bit processing

ENOIF

-,-,Skip here if RETREG was AL

ENOIF

;-,Skip here if RETREG was AX

ENOM

;;End of MOVACC

ENOF MACRO ARGS.RETREG.TR

-,Gen stack loads and RET for routine

.XCREF

;Don't need cross-referencing here

IF OUTCT + lOCT

;If there are output arguments

MOV BP, SP

; set up for stack access

C =0

; initialize arg ctr

IRP X, <ARGS>

; and loop through it.

C = C + 1

; using C to count from 1 to ARITY

OUTARG XC, X, TR

; generating stack loads as we go

ENOM

;End of argument list processing loop

ENOIF

;Now handle the return

IFNB <RETREG>

;If a return reg has been specified

MOVACC RETREG

; generate code to move it to AL or AX

ENOIF

;skip here if RETREG was blank

POP BP

-.Restore frame ptr

RET 2*ARITY

;Clean args off stack

XOUT

;Make spacing blank line in listing

.CREF

;Restore cross-ref'ing for next routine

ENOM

;End of ENOF

WITHl MACRO OP, K, ARG

-, ;Apply OP to

OP [BP+2*(ARITY-K)+6], ARG ;;Kth stack entry & ARG

ENOM

;;End of WITHl

WITH2 MACRO OP, ARG, K

;-.Apply OP to

OP ARG, [BP+2*(ARITY-K)+6] ;-,ARG & Kth stack entry

ENOM

-.-.End of WITH2

SYS MACRO NAME, INTN, FUNCN

, ARGS, REG ;;Gen SYS call interface

XOUT NAME ;

-.Let user know we're here

PUBLIC NAME

-.Make sure proc is accessible to Pascal

NAME PROC FAR ;

;Start of generated procedure

PROLOG <ARGS> ;

-.Count & fetch input arguments

INTFUN INJN, FUNCN ;

;Call the interrupt function

EPILOG REG

;Call the macro generated by PROLOG

NAME ENOP ;

-.End of generated procedure

ENOM

-.End of SYS

.LALL

.CREF

.LIST

186

PC Tech Journal

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PC Tech Journal Program Listings on Diskette.

T hat’s right! ’Vbu don’t have to
type in detailed program listings
from this Sept, issue. "Von can order

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them on a LISTING DISKETTE"
from PC Tech Journal. And on the
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program listings for last month’s issue.

Certain listings require use of
other material (e.g. Pascal compiler).
Please consult relevant article in
magazine.

For your added convenience, we
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DISKETTES from previous issues.
They’re all listed in the coupon. To
order, simply fill it out. Charge-card
customers can also use our toll-free
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LEGAL BRIEF

Max Stul Oppenheimer

Computer Crime

Three lessons from criminal law

M aximal use of the legal sys¬
tem often requires making le¬
gal tools that were designed for one
purpose serve another,- likewise, ob¬
taining adequate comfort with a
proposed project may require analy¬
sis of legal principles that at first
glance seem wildly inapposite.

What follows are recent develop¬
ments in criminal law that may ap¬
ply to computer users even if they
don't consider themselves criminals.
And SO: a warning, a tool, and a
marketing survey.

A Warning

Many computer stores offer elec¬
tronic bulletin boards at no cost to
their customers. According to a re¬
cent survey (I called the owner of a
store), such boards are great for
public relations, require no hard¬
ware that wouldn't be in stock any¬
way, take little attention, and are
risk-free as long as comments about
third parties are mildly edited.

My survey respondent, how¬
ever, had not seen a message on the
local board alleging that the opera¬
tor was served with a search war¬
rant and his system seized "because
of a message that had been left, un¬
known to [the operator], on one of
the public boards." More details
were provided in the Los Angeles
Times report of the incident. Ac¬
cording to the Times, an ATStT
credit card number had been posted
anonymously on the board. Pacific
Bell obtained a search warrant and
seized both hardware and the disks

containing the bulletin board mes¬
sages. A California statute makes it
a misdemeanor to publish a credit
card number with the intent or rea¬
sonable knowledge that it will be
used to avoid phone charges.

Within the same month, TRW
Information Systems reported that a
password to its credit files had been
posted on an electronic bulletin
board. The bulletin board has not
yet been located, but TRW has
changed its password.

If either systems operator is
ever charged, a court will have to
resolve hard questions—is the oper¬
ator an aider and abettor if his
board is used to facilitate criminal
activity, or is he simply a passive
conduit like the phone company? If
he could be considered an aider and
abettor, then where is the line
drawn? Hasn't the author of the
communications package helped,
too? What about the manufacturers
of the modem and computer?

The court would have to decide
whether systems operators should
be censors of the contents of their
users' communications and whether
users of electronic communications
have any right to privacy of their
communications.

A Tool

Title 19 1526(a) of the United
States Code prohibits importing
merchandise into the United States
"if such merchandise, or the label,
sign, print, package, wrapper, or re¬
ceptacle" bears a federally regist¬

ered trademark that has been filed
with the Treasury Department.
Title 19 1526(e) provides for the sei¬
zure of merchandise bearing coun¬
terfeit marks. As part of its effort to
protect the Apple logo and copy¬
rights, Apple Computer registered
with U.S. Customs (an agency of
the Treasury Department) and pro¬
vided technical assistance and coop¬
eration in detecting illegal imports.
The efforts culminated in indict¬
ments of six individuals and five
companies, and, to date, one jail
sentence. IBM has recently instit¬
uted a similar program.

A Marketing Survey

The American Bar Association
didn't set out to do a marketing sur¬
vey—it wanted to know how the
Fortune 500 and several specific in¬
dustries and government agencies
were affected by and dealing with
computer crime. In the process,
however, it produced perhaps the
best marketing survey to date on
the potential demand for computer
security products and services.

The survey's purpose was to in¬
vestigate "the nature of computer
crime, its causes, its perpetrators, its
victims, its effects, and how its oc¬
currence can be prevented or dimin¬
ished"—a tall order for 283 re¬
sponses to a 12-page survey.

Computer crime, as defined in
the American Bar Association sur-

Max Stul Oppenheimer is a partner in the
law firm of Venable, Baetjer, and Howard in
Baltimore.

188

PC Tech Journal

LEGAL BRIEF

vey, includes '^criminal activities di¬
rected against computers and their
components, criminal activities
which use computers or their com¬
ponents as instruments to perpetrate
crime, and other activities involving
computers which, while they may
not constitute 'crimes' in the strict
legal sense, nevertheless amount to
abuse which perhaps should be de¬
clared illegal."

Seventy-two respondents re¬
ported having sustained, in the ag¬
gregate, "known and verifiable
losses . . . during the last twelve
months" of between $145 million
and $730 million (the large gap re¬
sults from the wording of the sur¬
vey, which asked for estimates of
ranges of losses). On the other hand,
125 respondents reported no
"known and verifiable losses," and
78 reported having no way to tell.

An overwhelming majority of
the survey respondents said that the
responsibility for controlling com¬
puter crime rested with the private
sector rather than with the govern¬
ment, and only a small percentage
said that the responsibility was that
of the manufacturers. Again by a
wide margin, the "most effective
means of preventing and deterring
computer crime" was deemed to be
"more comprehensive and effective
self-protection by private business."

The ABA survey certainly dis¬
pels any doubt about the existence
of an enormous market for com¬
puter security services and products.
Marketing people should be very in¬
terested in the following statistics
(the whole report is available for $5
from the ABA, Section of Criminal
Justice, 1800 M Street, N.W., Wash¬
ington, D.C. 20036):

1. The most significant types of
computer-related crime (ranked
by the number of respondents
identifying the type as "signifi¬
cant"—the respondents had been
asked to rate the significance of
each type, but a large number of
them "did not interpret the ques¬

tion correctly"). Those that got
more than 100 votes:

a. Use of a computer as an in¬
strument in the theft of assets
(241 votes)

b. Destruction or alteration of
data (221 votes)

c. Use of a computer as an in¬
strument in embezzlement
(203 votes)

d. Destruction or alteration of
computer software (190 votes)

e. Use of a computer to commit
fraud against consumers, in¬
vestors, or users (184 votes)

f. Theft of computer software
(178 votes)

g. Unauthorized use of a com¬
puter for personal program¬
ming activities (140 votes)

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EXCITING NEW DISCOVERY! Have you ever had the need
for a letter quality printer? They are nice to have, but cost from
$600 to $3000. Although many of them allow different type
styles and fonts, changing fonts requires changing the physical
head on the machine. The FANCY FONT PROGRAM allows
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B&L COMPUTER CONSULTANTS, 7337 Northview, Suite B,
Boise, ID 83704, (208) 377-8088.

Dealers inquiries are welcome. Call or write for a free catalog.

CIRCLE NO. 153 ON READER SERVICE CARD

September 1984

189

LEGAL BRIEF

h. Use of computer as an instru¬
ment for sabotage (123 votes)

i. Theft of raw output data
(110 votes)

2. The most common crimes in
which a computer, its compo¬
nents, or its output was the ob¬
ject of the crime (ranked by
number of occurences during the
most recent 12-month period):

a. Thefts of computer software
(45 votes)

b. Thefts of computer hardware
(43 votes)

c. Destruction or alteration of
data (23 votes)

d. Destruction or alteration of
computer software (23 votes)

e. Thefts of raw output data
(22 votes)

f. Thefts of input data
(12 votes)

g. Destruction or alteration of
computer hardware (10 votes)

h. Thefts of coded output data
(7 votes)

3. The most common perpetrators

(where known):

a. A computer programmer or
“software personnel"

(67 votes) ^

b. A nonsupervisory computer
operator (42 votes)

c. Nonsupervisory personnel not
directly involved with com¬
puters (40 votes)

d. An individual with no prior
relationships with the organi¬
zation (37 votes)

e. An outside consultant
(22 votes)

f. A computer operations super¬
visor (22 votes)

g. An executive or manager not
directly involved with com¬
puters (21 votes)

h. A competitor (16 votes)

i. A customer or a client
(11 votes)

4. The most common crimes in

which a computer was an instru¬
ment in the perpetration of a

crime (ranked by number of oc¬
currences during the most recent

12-month period):

a. Unauthorized use of com¬
puter for personal program¬
ming activities (63 votes)

b. Thefts of assets, tangible or
intangible (44 votes)

c. Embezzlement (22 votes)

d. Fraud against consumers, in¬
vestors, or users (14 votes)

e. Sabotage (13 votes)

f. Extortion or blackmail
(5 votes)

The survey notes that many re¬
spondents seemed to be asking
“Why don't companies that design
or manufacture computer systems
pay more attention to security fea¬
tures in the design stage? Why
don't companies (and government
agencies) invest more in computer
security, research, and usage?"

There appears to be a large market
that is waiting for companies to an¬
swer those questions. um—i

Use ALL the Power of Your
MS-DOS, IBM PC-DOS, or CP/M-80 System
with UNIX-Style Carousel Tools

ch “CP/M” “MS-DOS”<doc>newdoc
diff newdoc doc I more
ed newdoc

kwic newdoc I sortmrg I uniq I unrot >index
make -f makdoc ndx

Carousel Tools and Carousel ToolKits are trademarks of Carousel
MicroTools, Inc. CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research; IBM is a
trademark of International Business Machines; MS is a trademark of
Microsoft; UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories.

CAROUSEL TOOLS are a proven set of over 50 programs
designed to be used with pipes, redirected I/O and
scripts. In the style of UNIX each Tool does one thing
well, and the Tools can be used together to do more
complex tasks.

YOU ACCOMPLISH MORE using Carousel Tools: better
programming and documentation support, simpler
data and file housekeeping, more general file
handling.

TOOLS FOR PC/MS-DOS 2.x AND CP/M-80 are available
now. The DOS ToolKit is $149. The CP/M ToolKit is $249
and includes a shell to provide pipes, redirected I/O,
and scripts. Source code is available for $100 more.

ORDER YOUR TOOLKIT TODAY.

CIRCLE NO. 113 ON READER SERVICE CARD

CALL OR WRITE:

^CAROUSEL MICROTOOLS, INC.

609 Kearney Street, El Cerrito, CA 94530 (415) 528-1300

the

RTool

Experts need expert tools. The correct tool, close at hand, saves
you time and gives you the leverage to get results fast.

RTool is a new concept in programming aids, a powerful set of
resident general purpose tools that you can awaken
with a single keystroke. RTool eliminates the need for manuals,
scratchpaper, and printouts, saving you time when time is money.
And, like any good tool, RTool is easy to use.

Use RTool to capture and save screen images, scan and load disk
files, and access on-line help. Create and save keyboard
macros. Submit block text to the keyboard. List, rename, and
delete files. Change directories. And much more. All with a
few keystrokes. Even when another program is being used.

RTool closes the loop between the keyboard, display, and disk
drives, letting them communicate with each other in a
simple and consistent way. Think of RTool as a set of

powerful new
features for every
program you own.

Available for the PC/XT,
PCDOS 1.1/2.0. Write
for free literature

^ or a demo disk ($15).

BitWit SoftWSrG special introductory

3790 El Camino Real, #205 offer: both DOS versions $149

Palo Alto, CA 94306 ($l58inCA).

415/494-2611

CIRCLE NO. 274 ON READER SERVICE CARD

DIRECTORY
COMMAND
SYSTEM
for the
IBM PC & XT

Which would you prefer?

THIS

— Designed
with the
“New User”
in mind

— A must for
Hard Disk
systems

— Compatible
w/DOS 1.10
and 2.00

Idir replaces the DOS prompt with an interactive command system that
eliminates the need to type commands and/or filenames to the command line.
Files are accessed and programs are executed by positioning Idir's scrolling
FILE and COMMAND CURSORS, and pressing <ENTER> Controlled by the arrow
keys, the CURSORS are easy to use “pointers.”

P.O. Box 2867, Boise, ID83701, (208) 342-5849

Suggested Retail Bourbafei Inc \/

* 95.00 7 €

PROGRAMMER’S
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
AND ACCESSORIES

IBM Personal Computer
Language and Utility Speciaiists

OPERATING SYSTEMS:

Concurrent DOS DRI NEW $350 CALL

Concurrent CP/M-86 DRI Multitasking 350 239
Unx-ll IDS Requires 10 MB hard disk 895 CALL

Cali for CP/M-86 products

*** X-Shell ***

by Standard DataCom

Bring Unix-like Capabilities
to your PC

Make more effective use of your
valuable programming time.

Manufacturer List $225 Our Price $205

LANGUAGES:

Lattice C Compiler

500

295

ADA-86 - 1 - Tools Janus

700

499

C-86 Computer Innovations

395

319

DeSmet C Compiler with Debugger

159

145

Professional BASIC Morgan Computing

345

295

Assembler w/Z-80 Translator 2500 AD

100

Call for Microsoft and Digital Research Products

“C" Language Starter Kit

Package Consists of:

DeSmet C Compiler w/Debugger $159 145
Windows For C Creative Solutions 150 119
AKA ALIAS Soft Shell Technology 60 57 !

C Programming Language |

1 book by K&R 25 20

Retail $394, Priced Separately $341

Our Special Package Price $329!

STSC APL*Plus/PC

We can support you!

Complete demonstration package with
diskette for $5, refundable with purchase.
Total APL system including character

1 generator chip.

Manufacturer List $595 Our Price $540

UTILITIES:

CodeSmith-86 Debugger Visual Age

$145

129

Profiler DWB & Associates

175

149

Btrieve SoftCraft

245

205

Windows for C by Creative Solutions

150

119

Translator APC PC BASIC to MEGABASIC

195

175

OPT-TECH Sort High Performance Utility

C Functions Lib. by Greenleaf Software

175

159

Float-87 8087 Software Support

125

Panel Screen Design/Editing

350

234

C-Food Smorgasbord

150

110

Halo Color Graphics for Lattice. CI-86

200

125

Plink-86 Overlay Linkage Editor

395

310

MetaWINDOW USA-Like Windows for PC

150

139

64K MEMORY:

64-K Memory Chip Kits w/instructions

100

Mi l Visa/MC

■■■i [ Wirj NO EXTRA CHARGE

Account is charged when order is shipped
Prices are subject to change without notice

CALL FOR LOW PRICES

1 - 800 - 336-1166

Programmer’s Connection

281 Martinet Drive
Kent, Ohio 44240
(216) 678-4301 (In Ohio)

Programmers Serving Programmers

CIRCLE NO. 108 ON READER SERVICE CARD

CIRCLE NO. 226 ON READER SERVICE CARD

TECH RE

Hardware, software,
and other developments
for the PC

PC-9 Track

HARDWARE

Further price reduc¬
tions have been announced
by IBM, which, already has
lowered its prices on the Por¬
table PC and PC/r and intro¬
duced less expensive versions
of the PC and PC/XT. The
cost of the XT 370, model
568, was dropped by almost
$500 to $6,230. Model 588,
which has a 10-megabyte
fixed disk, was reduced by
$900 to $8,085. IBM also low¬
ered the price of the 3270,
model 2, with 256K memory,
display adapter, disk drive ad¬
apter and keyboard adapter,
from $4,290 to $3,785; model
4, with 384K and model 2
features plus a printer adapt¬
er, from $5,319 to $4,650;
and model 6, with 384K and
fixed disk adapter, from
$7,180 to $6,210.

IBM

To locate your nearest au¬
thorized dealer or product

center, call 800-447-4700.

CIRCLE 450 ON READER SERVICE CARD

The Microperipheral
Corporation has an¬
nounced a portable modular
telephone jack attachment
for computer telecommunica¬
tions. Called The BLACK

JACK, the product permits
use of computerized telecom¬
munications in locations that
do not have modular (RJllC)
phone jacks. It also elimi¬
nates the loss of line sensitiv¬
ity associated with the use of
acoustical couplers. The
BLACK JACK is constructed
of rubber with a built-in cir¬
cuit card and modular jack.
Its unique connectors make
it compatible with single- or
multi-line telephone hand¬
sets. $49.95.

The Microperipheral
Corporation

2565 152nd Avenue N.E.

Redmond, WA 98052

206-881-7544

CIRCLE 451 ON READER SERVICE CARD

The BLACK JACK

A magnetic tape subsystem
for PCs called PC-9 Track
has been introduced by

Alloy Computer Prod¬
ucts. PC-9 Track includes

an intelligent interface that
utilizes a Z-80 microprocessor
and proprietary firmware to
provide data transfer between
a PC and a mainframe-com¬
patible 9-track tape drive
with an embedded formatter.
The subsystem has up to 42
megabytes of back-up and
working storage and provides
high-speed disk-to-tape trans¬
fer at rates of .7 Mbytes per
minute. $6,595.

Alloy Computer Products
100 Pennsylvania Avenue
Framingham, MA 01701
617-875-6100

CIRCLE 456 ON READER SERVICE CARD

The Toaster Plus storage
subsystem from XCOMP
offers the 2.78-megabyte
SuperFloppy Drive, which
provides 3.33-megabyte (un¬
formatted) storage capacity
and 3-millisecond track-to-
track performance in a com¬
pact, half-height 5 ^4-inch
minifloppy format. A propri¬
etary track-following servo
system ensures accurate, on-
track read/write head posi¬
tioning. The system has a
transfer rate of 500 kilobits
per second. $3,995 for one
SuperFloppy Drive plus 15-
Mbyte (formatted) hard disk.
$4,995 for one SuperFloppy

drive and 31.5-megabyte (for¬
matted) hard disk.

XCOMP

3554 Ruffin Road South
San Diego, CA 92123
619-5730077

CIRCLE 459 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Toaster Plus

Kamerman Labs has an¬
nounced a new inexpensive
10-megabyte hard-disk sys¬
tem that stores 12.76 Mbytes
unformatted and 10 Mbytes
formatted. The Mega¬
flight 100 uses the DOS
2.0 or 2.1 software drivers
and typically requires no ex¬
ternal power supply. The sys¬
tem includes a hard-disk
drive, the disk controller card
with plugs and cables, and a
manual. $895.

Kamerman Labs
7787 S.W. Cirrus Drive
Beaverton, OR 97005
503-626-6877

CIRCLE 455 ON READER SERVICE CARD

A series of Winchester disk
subsystems that features
compatibility with all IBM
PC, XT, and compatible
hardware, software, and

192

PC Tech Journal

peripherals has been intro¬
duced by Data Technolo¬
gy Corporation. The
TeamMate 1000 Series

includes four models: Team-
Mate 1110 (10-Mb internal
Winchester); TeamMate
1210 (10-Mb external Win¬
chester); TeamMate 1232 (32-
Mb external Winchester);
and TeamMate 1213 (10-Mb
Winchester coupled with a
Kodak 3.3 flexible 5^/4-inch
drive). All models feature
full transparency with DOS
2.0 and all are FCC Class B
approved. Installation takes
only minutes and requires no
special diskettes, software
drivers, or formatting pro¬
grams. Price for model 1110:
$1,495; model 1210: $2,095;
model 1232: $3,395; model
1213: $2,795.

Data Technology
Corporation
277S Northwestern
Parkway

Santa Clara, CA 95051
408-496-0434

CIRCLE 460 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Subsystem in the TeamMate 1000 Series

The LaserJet Printer
from Hewlett-Packard

provides letter-quality output
quietly and quickly: it regis¬
ters a noise level of less than
55 decibels while printing,
and it is eight times faster
than a typical daisy-wheel
printer. The printer is com¬
patible with major existing
software packages, such as
Lotus 1-2-3, Multimate,
WordStar, etc. It offers reso¬
lution of 300 by 300 dots per
inch, producing print quality
nearly indistinguishable from
copy produced on electric ty¬
pewriters. Numerous differ¬
ent fonts are available in
plug-in cartridges; up to four
typefaces can be mixed on
one page. $3,495 with built-
iji sheet-feeder and standard
RS-232-C interface.
Hewlett-Packard
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304
408-973-7648

CIRCLE 457 ON READER SERVICE CARD

The PCX, a personal com¬
puter expander kit, has been
introduced by NCR In¬
dustrial Systems. PCX
consists of an inexpensive
terminal-communications
card, a software driver, a

demonstration program, and
an NCR 2840 Data Collec¬
tion Terminal. The terminal
includes a 3-of-9 bar code
wand, an alphanumeric key¬
board, a 16-character display,
and an optical badge reader.
On the communications card
are an optically isolated
RS-422 port, an RS-232-C
port, and a timer. With su¬
perior common-mode noise
rejection and true ground iso¬
lation between the PC and
the terminal network, the
RS-422 driver can support as
many as 32 devices at dis¬
tances up to 4,000 feet. Com¬
munication takes place at
9,600 bps. An IBM with
MS-DOS and R/M COBOL is
required for the demonstra¬
tion program. $2,500.

NCR Corporation
584 S. Lake Emma Road
Lake Mary, FL 32746
305-323-9250

CIRCLE 462 ON READER SERVICE CARD

A new graphics adapter
board from STB Systems,
Inc-STB GRAPHIX
PLUS II— supports both
RGB color and monochrome
displays, switching the dis¬
play to the appropriate moni¬
tor automatically. The board
is configurable as a color
graphics and/or mono¬
chrome/printer adapter. A

full-screen monochrome
graphics driver and a 16-color
driver are included in the
package. $495.

STB Systems, Inc.

601 N. Glenville
Suite 125

Richardson, TX 75081
817-732-7307

CIRCLE 452 ON READER SERVICE CARD

STB GRAPHIXS PLUS II

The Peripheral Auto¬
matic Channel Emu¬
lator (PACE) from Data/
Ware Development,
Inc. converts an IBM PC
into an IBM Channel Simula¬
tor that can be used to per¬
form factory system testing,
design, or "in-field diagnos¬
tics" of IBM or IBM-compati¬
ble peripherals. PACE can op¬
erate at a variety of channel
speeds, including data
streaming rates (3.0 mega¬
bytes per second). Features of
the package include a bus/
tag IK trace buffer—which
may be set to store data pre-,
post-, or mid-trigger when a
preselected channel state is
matched—a microprogram

September i984

193

breakpoint, and single-step
capability. $12,800.
Data/Ware
Development, Inc.

4204 Sonento Valley Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92121
619-453-7660

CIRCLE 453 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Epson has announced two
new dot-matrix printers de¬
signed specifically for OEMs
and system integrators. The
CTM F-lOO and the CTM
F-80 print at 160 CPS and
feature high-resolution print
characters, multiple print
modes, universal power sup¬
ply, extended character sets,
and 20 percent greater
throughput than the com¬
pany's FX series. The CTM
F-lOO prints 136 columns,- the
CTM F-80 prints 80. CTM
F-lOO: $500. CTM F-80: $370.
Epson OEM Products
Division

3415 Kashiwa Street
Torrance, CA 90505
213-533-8277

CIRCLE 458 ON READER SERVICE CARD

A new data communications
product from Complexx
Systems allows three com¬
puters and/or peripherals to
share a single dial-up line si¬
multaneously. TriMux.212
incorporates a three-channel
statistical multiplexer with

an auto-dial/auto-answer Bell
212A modem. Users can
choose from three modes of
operation. First, data from
three devices can be multi¬
plexed onto a regular dial-up
call. Second, when the com¬
puters and peripherals are
not using TriMux.212 as a
concentrator, any of the de¬
vices can individually access
and use the modem to call
any other 212A modem. Fi¬
nally, the three local devices
can access and communicate
with one another through a
local data switch. $1,495.
Complexx Systems, Inc.
4930 Research Drive
Huntsville, AL 35805
205-830-4310

CIRCLE 463 ON READER SERVICE CARD

TriMwc.212

Microscience Interna¬
tional Corporation has

introduced a 3.5-inch half¬
height Winchester disk drive
with a full 10 Mb of format¬
ted storage. The HH-312
will interface with all micro
systems using the computer's
own power supply. It has an

unformatted capacity of
12.76 Mb per drive and a
data transfer rate of 5 Mb per
second; average access time is
70 milliseconds. A propri¬
etary closed-loop servo posi¬
tioning system is used to mi¬
crostep the heads to the exact
center of the data track. The
HH-312 uses a single PCB in
place of a multiboard system,-
reliability is improved
through the use of LSI cir¬
cuitry that eliminates be-
tween-board interconnects.
Under $900 for OEMs.
Microscience International
Corporation
575 E. Middlefield Road
Mountain View, CA 94043
415-961-2212

CIRCLE 461 ON READER SERVICE CARD

An add-on circuit board
called the jr-87 has been an¬
nounced by TIAC Manu¬
facturing, Inc. This
board permits the high-speed
8087 Numeric Data Proces¬
sor to be plugged into the
PC/r. The board does not in¬
terfere with the operation of
the PC/r's peripherals and
does not modify the PC/r in
any way. The 8087 operates
at the same speed on the
PC/r as it does on the PC.
Software designed to run
with the 8087 on the PC

will run with no modifica¬
tions on the PC/r. $89.95.
TIAC Manufacturing, Inc.
3084 Spring Street
Port Moody, British
Columbia
Canada V3H 1Z8

CIRCLE 454 ON READER SERVICE CARD

ir-87

The Electronic Disk
from Distributed Logic
Corporation is a fast
floppy drive emulator for the
IBM PC. Its maximum useful
displacement is 360K, and it
may be formatted as an
eight- or nine-sector disk.

The board plugs into any
I/O slot in the PC or XT and
requires no software installa¬
tion. The Electronic Disk can
be 62.5 times faster than a
floppy disk. $995.

Distributed Logic
Corporation

12800 Garden Grove Blvd.

Garden Grove, CA 92643

714-534-8950

CIRCLE 464 ON READER SERVICE CARD

194

PC Tech Journal

Omnis 1, Omnis 2, and Omnis 3

SOFTWARE

A multitasking system has
been developed for the IBM
PC by Digital Research,
Inc. The product, Con¬
current PC-DOS, allows a
PC to run four PC-DOS or
CP/M application programs
at the same time. It has a
window capability, enabling
the user to view the execu¬
tion of all four applications
simultaneously. Several pro¬
ductivity tools are included
as part of the Concurrent PC-
DOS package, including
Print Spooler, which allows
users to queue documents to
be printed while other tasks
are printed; and Rolodex, a
sorting and searching pro¬
gram for lists of names and
addresses. Concurrent
PC-DOS has a two-user fea¬
ture for use primarily as a re¬
mote dial-up link. $295.
Digital Research, Inc.

160 Central Avenue
Pacific Grove, CA 93950
m-649-3896

CIRCLE 472 ON READER SERVICE CARD

IBM has redesigned the
Technical Reference
Manuals for the PC,
PC/XT, and Portable, updat¬
ing all technical information
on the computers' features
and options. The revised

manuals include three new
publications—one that con¬
tains information unique to
an IBM PC system, one for
the PC/XT and Portable PC,
and a third reference that in¬
cludes information common
to all PC family products, in¬
cluding adapters and I/O de¬
vices. With the Options and
Adapters manual, IBM will
provide an Update Informa¬
tion Service through June
1985. Prices: The IBM Person¬
al Computer System Techni¬
cal Reference Manual, $30;
The IBM Personal Computer
XT/Portable Personal Com¬
puter Technical Reference
Manual, $30; The IBM Per¬
sonal Computer Options
and Adapters Technical
Reference, $125.

IBM

P.O. Box 1328

Boca Raton, FL 33429-1328

305-998-2000

CIRCLE 466 ON READER SERVICE CARD

A series of three database
programs for microcomputers
has been introduced by
Organizational Soft¬
ware Corp. The programs
become progressively more
comprehensive, and they can
be upgraded as needed.
OMNIS 1, The File
Manager is designed for

first-time users and is capable
of handling basic information
management tasks such as
mailing-list maintenance,
time management, and dia¬
ries. OMNIS 2, The In¬
formation Manager
builds on the capabilities of
OMNIS 1, offering multi¬
screen records with up to 120
information items per record,
performing calculations on
records, and providing search
and retrieve facilities with
full logical operators. OM¬
NIS 3, The Database
Manager supports up to 12
open files at once, operates as
a relational or hierarchical
database system, and gener¬
ates complete turnkey sys¬
tems. OMNIS 1, $95; OMNIS
2, $195; OMNIS 3, $295.
Organizational
Software Corporation
2655 Campus Drive
Suite 150

San Mateo, CA 94403
415-571-0222

CIRCLE 469 ON READER SERVICE CARD

ColorScreenPrint, a

software utility that increases
the color capabilities of the
IBM Color Printer, has been
introduced by Applica¬
tion Techniques. With
ColorScreenPrint, the user
can choose from 16 standard
colors or thousands of user-

defined colors. Any graph
that can be displayed on an
IBM PC color display adapter
can be printed at any size up
to 13 inches at any position
on the paper.

Application Techniques
80 Townsend Street
PeppereU, MA 01463
617-433-5201

CIRCLE 477 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Three programs that are
meant to aid photographers
in the darkroom are now
available for the IBM PC and
PCjr. Darkstar provides so¬
lutions to a variety of dark¬
room problems, including ex¬
posure, filtration, and pro¬
cessing time. Timestar al¬
lows timing control of as
many as 15 sequential peri¬
ods. Darkstar Plus com¬
bines the capabilities of both
Darkstar and Timestar. The
publisher of these software
programs is f/22 Press.
Prices: Darkstar, $64.95;
Timestar, $24.95; and Dark-
star Plus, $89.95.
f/22 Press
P.O. Box 141
Leonia, NJ 07605
201-568-6250

CIRCLE 479 ON READER SERVICE CARD

September i984

195

Speed Key

dB Compiler

PFA Micro, an automated
process flow analysis tech¬
nique, has been called the
''productivity tool for the
80s" by its producers, Con¬
trol Data Business
Advisors. The technique
uses flow charts to analyze
repetitive operations. The
PFA Micro package consists
of a facilitator's kit, $950; a
training module, $450; and
application software, $950.
Control Data Business
Advisors

3601 W. 77th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55435
612-921-4251

CIRCLE 467 ON READER SERVICE CARD

PFA Micro

The first compiler developed
for dBASE II has been an¬
nounced by WordTech
Systems. The product,
dB/Compiler, translates a
dBASE II program into code
that executes without the
presence of dBASE II. It com¬

piles a dBASE II application
program into modules that
are smaller than the original
application, saving disk space
and, in some cases, executing
faster. The compiled version
protects source code more ef¬
fectively than encryption
would. dB/Compiler also has
cross-linkers available so that
code can be produced for
different operating environ¬
ments. Price: $750; cross¬
linkers, $350 each.

WordTech Systems, Inc.
Box 1747
Orinda, CA 94563
415-254-0900

CIRCLE 468 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Ashton-Tate and Infor¬
matics General Corpo¬
ration have jointly intro¬
duced a micro-mainframe
link for personal computer
database management sys¬
tems. Called dBASE/An¬
swer, the product allows da¬
tabase information to be
transferred directly from an
IBM mainframe file to an
IBM PC or PC/XT running
Ashton-Tate database man¬
agement software, such as
dBASE II and III, Friday!, and
Framework. dBASE/Answer
will work in conjunction
with a mainframe product
from Informatics called
Answer/DB. A typical con¬

figuration, consisting of an
Answer/DB module for a
single mainframe and
dBASE/Answer for 50 PCs,
would cost $45,000.
Ashton-Tate
10150 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90230
213-204-5570

CIRCLE 470 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Informatics General Corp.
21031 Ventura Blvd.
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
213-887-9040

CIRCLE 471 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Microsoft has released
new versions of Microsoft
Pascal, FORTRAN, and
C compilers for MS-DOS.
Enhancements to Pascal in¬
clude high-speed math per¬
formance without an 8087
chip, BCD floating point
arithmetic and MS-DOS 2.0
file and overlay linking op¬
tions. The new FORTRAN
also includes new support for
large arrays and complex
numbers. The latest C com¬
piler now supports use of
path names to take advantage
of DOS directory structure
and I/O redirection. It has
expanded memory addressing
capabilities. A programmer
can now choose from a small-,
medium-, compact-, or
large- memory C compiler.

Pascal 3.2, $300; FORTRAN
3.2, $350; and C 2.0, $500.
Microsoft

10700 Northup Way
Bellevue, WA 98009
206-828-8080

CIRCLE 474 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Koala Technologies
Corporation has intro¬
duced a product that im¬
proves its Koala touch tablet
for business applications.
With Speed Key, the tab¬
let becomes a custom key¬
board with overlays. Each
overlay contains 36 soft keys
dedicated to a specific busi¬
ness application program—
including Lotus 1-2-3, Word¬
Star, MultiPlan, SuperCalc,
VisiCalc, dBASE II, and
PFS:Write. With Speed Key,
the user does not have to re¬
member lengthy commands
and multiple keystrokes
required by a conventional
keyboard. In addition, press¬
ing a button on the tablet
will provide the user with
mouse-like features. $99.

Koala Technologies Corp.

3100 Patrick Henry Drive

Santa Clara, CA 95052

408-986-8866

CIRCLE 465 ON READER SERVICE CARD

196

PC Tech Journal

Computer Control Sys¬
tems has added a data,
screen, and report manager to
its product line. DB-FABS
has been designed for use ei¬
ther in the stand-alone mode
for the computer novice or in
the run-time mode with a
standard BASIC interpreter or
compiler. The package allows
the user to preset up to 16
conditions in data files,
forms, and keys; other fea¬
tures include automatic up¬
dating of indexed files and an
archival file for saving del¬
eted records. $295.

Computer Control Systems
298 21st Terrace SE
Largo, FL 33541
813-586-1886

CIRCLE 473 ON READER SERVICE CARD

A database-management soft¬
ware package for PCs that is
compatible with SQL/DS and
Database 2 systems has been
announced by Qint Data¬
base Systems Corpora¬
tion. Using Qint/SQL,
companies can integrate indi¬
vidualized data processing on
PCs with their centralized
databases. Qint/SQL offers
database-management capa¬
bilities to microcomputer us¬
ers. Three versions are avail¬
able; Query, for users who
need only to retrieve data
from a database,- Query +

Floppickne

Update, for users who need
to enter and retrieve data;
and Administrator, for those
concerned with the creation,
maintenance, and manage¬
ment of database systems.
Prices from $1,000 for Query
to $9,000 for Administrator.
Qint Database
Systems Corporation
50 Waban Hill Road North
Chestnut Hill, MA
617-527-9329

CIRCLE 478 ON READER SERVICE CARD

A source code interactive li¬
brarian, SETrSCIL, has been
announced by System En¬
gineering Tools, Inc.
SCIL can maintain any pro¬
gram source code, regardless
of language, and it allows the
user to choose any ASCII text
editor. The product is the
first in a new line of software
maintenance tools. Soon to be
released are SET; FORM, a
frame-oriented "include" me¬
taprocessor, and SET;PLAN,
which will create and main¬
tain system design docu¬
ments. $695.

System Engineering
Tools, Inc.

645 Arroyo Drive
San Diego, CA 92103
619-692-9464

CIRCLE 475 ON READER SERVICE CARD

In response to IBM's an¬
nouncement of a local area
network cabling system,
Ungermann-Bass, Inc.
has said it will offer a version
of its Net/One that will
operate on the IBM
cabling system. By adding
data-grade twisted-pair wire
to conform to IBM's specifi¬
cations, Net/One users will
be able to select the most ap¬
propriate medium or combi¬
nation of media for their
needs while insuring compat¬
ibility with IBM products.
Ungermann-Bass
2560 Mission College Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95050
408-496-0111

CIRCLE 476 ON READER SERVICE CARD

OTHER WARES

Pivar Computing Ser¬
vices provides conversion
services from magnetic tape
to disk, disk to tape, and disk
to disk. The company can
convert more than 140 differ¬
ent formats and can create
customized programs to re¬
format data to the customer's
specifications. Pivar also of¬
fers conversion to mailmerge
formats, dBASE conversion,

upper- to lower-case conver¬
sion, and conversion to un¬
pack packed fields. Prices
range from $15 to $65 per
disk, depending on the
format requested.

Pivar Computing Services
47 W. Dundee
Wheeling, IL 60090
312-459-6010

CIRCLE 481 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Automation Facilities
Corporation has an¬
nounced Floppiclene, a

completely disposable wet-
dry disk drive head-cleaning
system. The proprietary tech¬
nology assures safe and im¬
mediate elimination of con¬
taminants that collect on
disk drive heads. The prod¬
uct is available for 3^2-inch,

5 ^4-inch, and 8-inch disk
drives. Each kit contains 20
cleaning disks, Safeclene
aerosol cleaning solution, two
Safebond absorbent wipes,
and two Safeclene presatu¬
rated antistatic screen wipes.
The package costs $34.95. A
home computer version with
10 cleaning disks is available
for $19.95.

Automation Facilities
Corporation
Financial Plaza
3916 State Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
805-687-7040

CIRCLE 483 ON READER SERVICE CARD

September 1984

197

Behind BASIC's
Back

Some handy tricks to help you get
the most from your IBM PC

Sometimes it is necessary to sneak
behind BASIC's back to get the
most from the IBM PC. Here are a
few handy tricks that can be used
in many BASIC programs.

This PEEK determines which
monitor, color/graphics or mono¬
chrome, is currently active:

10 DEF S£G=&H40
20 MONO.CARD=(PEEK(&H10)
AND &H30)=&H30
30 COLOR.CARD=(PEEK(&H10)
AND &H30)<>&H30
40 IF NOT COLOR.CARD
THEN . . .

When mid-resolution graphics
mode is entered, BASIC allows no
choice of color for characters dis¬
played by the PRINT command.
These POKEs provide that choice:

DEF SEG: POKE &H4E,KOLOR
for interpretive BASIC
DEF SEG: POKE &H81,KOLOR
BASCOM with /o option
DEF SEG: POKE &HB5,KOLOR
BASCOM with BASRUN

Just set the KOLOR variable to 1, 2,
or 3 and execute the relevant code.

There is a "backdoor" way to
change the background color of
characters printed in graphics
mode: if the user POKEs the correct
color address with the command
KOLOR + SiHSO, printed charac¬
ters will be XORed with the pixels
that are already in place. This code
sets the screen to a pseudo-inverse
mode by filling it with white, then
using the described POKE:

10 SCREEN 1

20 LINE (0,0)—(319,199),33F
fill with white
30 DEF SEG :POKE &H4E,&H83
interpretive BASIC
40 INPUT A$

now experiment
50 POKE &H4E,3

The last POKE resets the color val¬
ue to its default because the BASIC
editor gets confused in this "XOR
mode." While line 40 is executing,
try this experiment: press the letter
a, backspace and press b, backspace
again and press c, backspace and
press a, and finally, backspace and
press c. The result is surprising.

Users who have a good under¬
standing of the meaning of the bit¬
wise XOR function should be able
to figure this trick out without try¬
ing it. Incidentally, any of the four
colors can be used for either the
foreground or the background.

LPRINT Hints

Most users who have two parallel-
interface cards and two printers
have wished for a simple way to
swap the printers with a software
command. The following code will
do exactly that:

100 DEF SEG=8lH40

110 P8=PEEK(8) :P9=PEEK(9)

120 POKE 8,PEEK(10) :POKE
9,PEEK(11)

130 POKE 10,P8 :POKE 11,P9

This procedure can be used to
modify a program so that it routes

TECH

NOTEBOOK

Dan Rollins

all LPRINTs and LLISTs to the de-
sired printer.

Of course, in order to keep pro¬
grams as flexible as possible, use of
LPRINT should be avoided. Just
OPEN the desired printer as a file
and use PRINT# instead of
LPRINT. In addition to being more
flexible, this technique allows
printer output to be sent to a text
file or to the screen.

BASICA version 2.0 will per¬
form a screen dump whenever the
user presses Ctrl-PrtSc. The same
thing can be done without user
intervention with this sequence.-

Y!=-51973.8 :X=VARPTR(Y!)
:CALL X

The secret to this sequence is that
the floating-point representation of
—51973.8 just happens to coincide
to the opcode bytes for

CD05INT 5
CB RETF
90 NOP

and the CALL X transfers control to
the address at which Y! is stored.

In fact, any interrupt can be
invoked by using the equation
Y!= —(51968.8+int.num). This
has few applications, because it
doesn't pass any parameters or re¬
turn any values from the interrupt.

These techniques, and others
like them, will help users get the
most from BASIC on the IBM PC.

fmT»1

Dan Rollins is a software consultant and
freelance writer who hves in Cahfornia.

198

PC Tech Journal

TECH BOOK

A Special Section for Product and Service Listings

Accessories/Supplies

RESET BUTTON FOR IBM PC

The button IBM forgot. A good reset button is a
basic tool for PC (PC/XT) programmers. When
your machine is hung up, a touch of the button
will quickly reboot your computer. This kit in¬
stalls easily and mounts out of the way behind
your machine. Easy instructions included. Send
$29.80 (add 6% in MN).

RESET CORPORATION
P.O. Box 14809

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414
(612)489-5892

IBM STYLE BINDERS, SLIPS

Complete program packaging line. D-ring cloth
binders, slip cases, floppy pages, game portfo¬
lios. Continuous paper with three large holes, 20
lb. to go in binders. Blank disk envelopes. Func¬
tion key cards tell user your F1-F10 meanings.
Call, write for prices. Catalog. Fast service, low
prices.

ANTHROPOMORPHIC SYSTEMS LIMITED
376 E. St. Charles Road
Lombard,! 60148
(312)629-5160

Computer/Services

INTI DOCUMENTATION

INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTATION provides
reliable service in the preparation of foreign
documentation & mktg. materials. Service in¬
cludes translation, typesetting, & graphic art.
Clear and accurate documentation in any lan¬
guage is a must. Let INTERNATIONAL DOCU¬
MENTATION make your foreign documentation
speak for you.

INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTATION
120 Barranca Ave. Suite A
Santa Barbara, CA 93109
(805)965-4761/(213)990-4886

Hardware/ Add-on
Boards

EPROM/MP/PAL/BIPOLAR

PROGRAMMER

PC compatible APROM-2000 card can program
2716, 32, 32A, 64,128, MCM 68764 EPROMS
and also 8748/49/51 processors. The software
(CP/M-86, MSDOS) can read, verify and pro¬
gram eproms and uses fast programming al¬
gorithm. The zero insertion socket is mounted
on an external box. The external box for BIPO¬
LAR proms and PAL is also available.
ADVANCED MICROCOMPUTER
SYSTEMS, INC.

6802 N.W. 20th Ave.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309
305-975-9515

DT2801 SERIES ANALOG I/O

Plug-in data acquisition boards with 8DI/16SE
analog inputs, high or low level programmable
gains, 2 analog outputs, 16 lines of digital 1/0,
DMA, on-board clock, and on-board micropro¬
cessor. Optional software subroutines and screw
terminal panels.

DATA TRANSLATION INC.

100 Locke Drive
Marlboro, MA 01752
(617)481-3700

256K NO SLOT MEMORY

IBM PC-1 owners. Let us install up to 256K RAM
on your EXISTING SYSTEM BOARD using NO
SLOTS. We improve your IBM PC so it can ad¬
dress the 64K RAM chip, 256K-$335 (expand¬
able and warranted). DO-IT-YOURSELF KITS—
PC-KPC-$69.95 ($99.95 assembled). 64K-
RAMS-$5.85ea.

ADD-MEM
22151 Redwood Rd.

Castro Valley, CA 94546
(415)886-5443

MULTI-COMM COMMUNICATIONS

ESE introduces two specially designed RS-232C
serial communications adapters for the PC & XT
and compatibles. MULTI-COMM II fias two ports,
$225.00, and MULTI-COM IV, a four port unit,
$445.00. Both have ESE’s selectable 64K I/O
address decoders and use a single interrupt line
regardless of the number of ports added.
ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS ENGINEERING CORP.
477 Congress Street, Suite 911
Portland, Maine 04101
MC/VISA. (207) 773-7778

RATES AND INFORMATION

Listings are grouped by category and consist of a bold lead line (23 characters
maximum), 7 lines of ad copy (45 characters per line), plus 4 lines of com¬
pany name, address and telephone number.

Listings are available only on a 3 issue basis at $60. per issue ($180. total).
Copy will have a set format and remain the same for all 3 months. Enhance
the appearance of your ad by including your Logo at an additional cost of $25.
per issue ($75. minimum extra charge). Pre-payment is required by check,
money order, or American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard, Visa credit
cards. Closing Date: 1st of 2nd month preceding cover date.

Send copy and remittance to PC TECH JOURNAL, TECH BOOK, 12th
FLOOR, 1 PARK AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10016. Call (212) 725-4215 for
additional information or assistance.

FIXED DISK BIOS/BOOT

fiXT boots from DATAMAC, DAVONG, XEBEC,
PERCOM, GREAT LAKES, ZOBEX, others. Adds
XT-like BIOS interface for your disk to IBM PC or
COMPAQ. Plug-in installation. DOS 2.0/2.1/reqd.
Specify controller model with order $70 -t- $3
shpg. -r- tax. MC/VISA (optional volume support
at additional cost.)

GOLDEN BOW SYSTEMS
P.O. Box 3039
San Diego, CA 92103
(619)298-9349

Hardware

Communications

TOTAL PC&XT COMMUNICATION

ESE introduces two extremely powerful com¬
munications adapters for the PC&XT & com¬
patibles. One is a unique multi-interrupt RS-232
serial add-on for one OR MORE users; $139.50,
and the second is a programmable 24 line par¬
allel interface; $119.45. Both have ESE’s full 64K
selectable 1/0 address decoders.

ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
477 Congress Street, Suite 911
Portland, Maine 04112
MC/VISA (207) 773-7778

Hardware/

Peripherals

Hardware Disk
Drives

8' & S'A" FLOPPY ORIVES ANO
OISKETTES

• 8" flexible disk subsystem—Attractive thin-line
design stacks above or below system’s unit
(1972" X 18" X 3/2") ANT with complete docu¬
mentation. Controller board and software
available.

1-8480 DD, DS, 2.4 MB $1495
1-8481 SD. DS, 1.2 MB $995

• 5 / 4 " internal disk drives—TANDON or Control
Data-DS, 40 ATP1,320 KB.

TM100-2 $235 •CDC 9409 $249
574" half height internal disk drives available.

• Control Data diskettes—1240-00 574" SS/DD
w/write protect notch in hub ring—bx of 10 $22.
1244-00 574 " DS/DD $35.1225-00 8" DS/DD
wpn $39.50. VISA/MC.

MICROXPRESS

305 S. State College, Suite 135

Anaheim, CA 92806

(714)632-8512

PC/STD BUS-h SOFTWARE $119

STD EMULINK is a paralell interface to any STD
Bus motherboard for IBM PC with Tecmar base¬
board. Comprised of STD Bus card, ribbon Ca-
ble+ BASIC drivers. STD EMULINK offers PC user
economical link to industrial quality STD Bus I/
0 boards, [ideal for PROCESS CONTROL & AU¬
TOMATION. Send check or money order.

STD EMULINK
P.O. Box 673
Upton, NY 11973

Mailing Lists

IBM MAILING LISTS

Over 100,000 names of IBM personal computer
owners (counts increase daily) available for rental
on labels or magnetic tape. Total 600,000 in¬
cluding other brands. Plus IBM + compatible
retail store + 50 other lists. Call or write for free
catalog.

IRV BRECHNER
TARGETED MARKETING, INC.

Box 5125

Ridgewood, NJ 07451
(201)445-7196

Publications

DYNAMIC DUO RETURNS!

Two new disk magazines for the IBM-PC-PC
FIRING LINE (for programmers) and PC UN¬
DERGROUND (for non-tech folk) are available
now. Send a self-addressed stamped disk mailer
and two formatted DS/DD disks for your free
copy.

ABCOMPUTING
P.O. Box 5503

North Hollywood, CA 91616-5503
(818)509-9002

Security

DATA PADLOCK

DATA PADLOCK is a software implementation of
the National Bureau of Standard Data Encryp¬
tion Standard. Written in Assembler. DATA PAD¬
LOCK offers max speed with no increase in file
size. An 8 character password provides the key
for encryption. Protect sensitive data, text or
program files from unauthorized access. Works
with all DOS versions $150. VISA/MC.

GLENCO ENGINEERING
3920 Ridge Ave.

Arlington Hts., IL 60004
(312)392-2492

TECH BOOK

Software/Business

dINVOICER + PLUS

MENU-DRIVEN BILLING & ACCOUNTS RE¬
CEIVABLE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. Produces
Invoices, Aged Statements, Invoice Journals,
Receipts Journals, Aged Customer Account
Status, Past Due Notices, etc. Available with
modifiable source code for dBASE II users $129
or as a stand-alone Run-time package $199.

DESMET C—$109

Full K&R C compiler, assembler, linker, librarian,
full-screen editor and example software. Both
8087 and floating point libraries. OUTSTAND¬
ING PRICE/PERFORMANCE. Rated 1 st or 2nd in
August ’83 BYTE benchmarks. No royalties on
generated code. C Ware newsletter. Unlimited
updates at $20 each. PC-DOS (Ver 1.1 & 2.0),
generic MS-DOS and CP/M-86 support. $109
for complete package, shipping included. Now
available with source level debugger. Price $159.

DATAMAR SYSTEMS
819 Gage Dr.

San Diego, CA 92106
(619)223-6444

WAR

CORPORATI

EXPERT SYSTEMS

Create your own expert systems with EXSYS. All
input is English text or menu selection. Uses full
1000K and probabilistic IF-THEN rules. Expert
systems developed marketable without royalty.
Demo disk including text of manual $10 (refund¬
able). Full program—$200. Requires 128K or
more.

EXSYS

RO. Box 75158
Contr. Sta. 14
Albuquerque, MN 87194

Software/

Communications

C WARE CORPORATION-MAIL ORDER DEPT.

P.O.Box 710097

San Jose, CA 95171-0097

C SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
•Full C Compiler per K&R
Inline 8087 or Assembler Floating Point
Full 1 Mb Addressing for Code or Data
•MS DOS 1.1/2.0 Library Support
Program Chaining Using Exec
Environment Available to Main
•c-window'“ C Source Code Debugger
COMBINED PACKAGE $199
c-systems
RO. Box 3253
Fullerton, CA 92634
(714)637-5362

TELEX LINK SOFTWARE

Link your computer to Western Union telex ser¬
vice via TWX or EasyLink. Cawthon’s telex soft¬
ware is specifically designed for telex
communications and is easy to use, has on-line
help, self-test diagnostics, frequently called
numbers, and an excellent User’s Guide. Caw¬
thon’s telex software is available for the IBM-PC
and many other computers.

Cawthon

Scientific

Group

CAWTHON SCIENTIFIC GROUP
24224 Michigan Avenue
Oeatborn, Michigan 48124
(313) 565-4000 Telex: 810-221-1265

Software/ Compiler

WIZARD C COMPILER

The power of C with the thorough diagnostics of
PASCAL. Full LINT diagnostic integrated with
compiler. Full UNIX SYSTEM 3 compatibility.
Floating point library; fast compact code; 1 reg¬
ister variable. In-line assembly code. UNIX em¬
ulation library. Uses MICRO-SOFT linker. PC/MS
DOS 2.0 only. $450.00.

WIZARD SYSTEMS SOFTWARE
11 Willow Court
Arlington, MA 02174
(617)641-2379

C-FUNCTION LIBRARY $29

100 C functions, macros, assembly functions.
Screen, cursor, keyboard, string, BI(3S and DOS
access, of course. Plus BASIC equivalent, utility
and many more you don’t have but need! Just
one can save you five times the cost of entire
package. Manual w/source code $29.95. Man¬
ual + 2 disks: source +5 libraries $49.95. Lat¬
tice or Microsoft C. (DeSmet and Cl soon).
ENTELEKON
12118 Kimberley
Houston, TX 77024
(713)468-4412

Software Data
Mgmt.

THE FORMS DESIGNER"-

Attention IBM Pascal, FORTRAN users! Save time
in designing formatted screen I/O. Interactive
Forms Editor allows you to draw lines and boxes,
define fields, and edit text. Access forms or read
keyboard entry by writing only one line of code.
Provides sequential data retrieval and storage.
Requires 128K RAM. Only $275 complete. Demo
and manual $35. Call or write:

BIT SOFTWARE
PO Box 619
Milipitas, CA 95035
(408)262-1054

Software/
Development Tools

FREE FREE FREE

BASIC AIDS FACT SHEETS and our guide titled
“MAKE YOUR PC PROFITABLE" are sent free to
persons who request them. Learn more about
developing Structured Programs in BASIC. This
new release of BASIC AIDS is the most powerful
program DEVELOPMENT and DOCUMENTA¬
TION tool available!

TULSA COMPUTER CONSORTIUM
PO. Box 707
Owasso, OK 74055
(918)747-0151

C-INDEX-i-

C index plus provides complete data manage¬
ment for C language applications development.
Includes variable length data storage, B+ Tree
ISAM indexing, interactive tutorial. Supported
compilers. Lattice & CI-C86. No application roy¬
alty fee. Object code license: $400. Demonstra¬
tion package: $25.

TRIO SYSTEMS
2210 WilshireBlvd. Suite 289
Santa Monica, CA 90403
(213)394-0796

SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE
PROFILER

THE PROFILER'“ will tell you where your pro¬
gram is spending it’s time and allows you to do
performance tuning on your code. Works with any
language, data printed in histogram form. Easy
to use and interpret. Complete user manual pro¬
vided. Requires DOS 2.0 or better and 64K.
$175.00 VISA/MC OK.

DWB ASSOCIATES
PO BOX 5777

BEAVERTON. OREGON 97006
(503)629-9645

PASCAL/FORTRAN/C UTIL

Written in assembly language, Pascal/Fortran/
C Utilities control screen, keyboard, graphics,
music, lightpen, mouse, joystick, printer, RS—
232, & I/O ports. Line/circle/ellipse/pie, clip¬
ping. windowing & animation. Terminal emula¬
tor. random #. BIOS/DOS calls. W/150 pg.
manual, demos. Specify compiler. $119. Check/
VS/MC.

SOFTWARE LABS
1221 Matisse Street
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
(408)730-8108

ANOTHER DEBUGGER??

This one has FULL SCREEN format and SCREEN
COEXISTENCE with test program (including
graphics-even SCROLLS THROUGH LISTING
FILES without disturbing the test session-all with
NO COMMANDS and only 10 function keys! It’s
fast (assembler), small (60K). and only $75 with
manual. DOS 2.0 or 2.1 IBM PC. XT. COMPAQ
PC-TEST

for the software developer
PO. Box 54068
San Jose, CA 95154

FORTRAN CODE EDITOR

IFCE is a program that renumbers, aligns & de¬
tabs FORTRAN IV to 77 programs. IFCE works
on a routine by routine basis. IFCE is very out¬
standing in situations where statement num¬
bers are not ordered as a result of modifications
& program maintenance. IFCE is a FORTRAN 77
program. Dealers welcome. $85.

La Mesa Research & Development
PO. Box 31
Louisville, CO 80027

C LIBRARY, TOOLS, SHELL

Library for lattice C compiler: all DOS. Some BIOS
function calls, enumerated and sorted file-names,
longjimp, quicksort, random numbers, others.
Tools: improved DIR, change mode, word count,
walk directories, others. Source included. $50.
Improved shell: all DOS internal commands,
command history, etc. $55.

LEMMA SYSTEMS. INC.

1508 Calle del Ranchero NE
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106
(505)268-7220

RAPID BASIC PROGRAMMING

SAVE VALUABLE TIME WITH THESE EFFEC¬
TIVE TOOLS:

—R—Reference line numbers & variables used;
—A—Alter or find string in program or file;
—P—Peripheral input/output interchange prog;
—I—Include basic subroutine source modules:
—D—Duplicate variables in 2 modules listed.
SOURCE MICROSOFT BASIC FORMATS ALL
FOR $49.95.

JAMES HALSTEAD & ASSOC.

1551 Plainfield Road
Joliet, IL 60435
(815)725-0346

COBOL GENERATOR

Generates IBM PC or MS COBOL

• Screen Design/Data Dictionary

• Structured Program Generator

• Query/Report Generator

From $250—send for information
—The COBOL Experts—

• Manframe to PC conversions
BOMAC SYSTEMS

PO. Box 10670
Pittsburgh, PA 15235
(412)795-3581

TECH BOOK

C LIBRARY UTILITIES

Don’t reinvent the wheel. Save time & money.
Do a better job. Extensive library with source. Best
screen handling available. Sound, graphics, DOS
2, printer, comm, date, time, and more. 150+
functions. DOS/BIOS gate gives complete con¬
trol of your PC. C86, Microsoft, Lattice. Intro, of¬
fer $79. Demo $30.

ESSENTIAL SOFTWARE, INC.

PO BOX 1003
Maplewood, N.J. 07040
(914)762-6605

Software/

Engineering

PELADA TEXT ENGINEER

Engineering and Scientific Word processing.
Technical symbols, special characters, super/
subscripts, italics, underlining, bolding. With
graphics hardware you can design any symbols
you want, up to 384 different characters. All
characters visible on screen and printable. Easy
English commands. $250.

PELADA INFORMATICS INC.

562 Johnson Street
Kingston, Canada K7L-2A1
(613)549-1747

ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT ANALYSIS

ECA is a high performance simulator for analog
electronic circuits. Features include full editing,
worst case, sensitivity analysis, ability to sweep
components, 64 nodes. It is easy to use and very
fast. Price $150. For all MS-DOS, CP/M, CP/M-
86 computers.

TATUM LABS
P.O. Box 698
Sandy Hook, CT 06482
(203)426-2184

PUBLIC DOMAIN FREEWARE

Rent PC Disk Libraries for 7 days, copy yourself
and return. Hundreds of business, games and
utilities free for the taking!
IBMPC-SIG-IOOVols. $99.50

IBM PC-Blue 73 Vols. $99.50

50' “flippy" Disks (blank) $99.50
Rental is for 7 days after receipt (sent by VPS),
3 more days grace to return. Credit cards ac¬
cepted, no deposit necessary.

NATIONAL PUBLIC DOMAIN
SOFTWARE CENTER
1062 Taylor St., Visat, CA 92083
(619)727-1015

24 hr. orders. (619) 941-0925 tech.

HEAT TRANSFER ON THE PC

T/SNAP AND CPP1 are Thermal Engineering
Programs. T/SNAP will solve steady-state and
transient problems up to 250 nodes. Includes
interactive input, FSE and plotting. CPP1 will
design various size coldplates using compact
fins. Calculates parametric electronic heat sink
and pressure drop performance.

TECHNA/SOFT SYSTEMS
717 W. 14th Street
Long Beach, CA 90813
(213)432-2704/823-6291

Software General

ATTENTION SOFTWARE AUTHORS

Our established literary agency is seeking to
represent talented freelance programmers. We
open doors for our clients at the leading soft¬
ware houses and negotiate the best deal possi¬
ble. Put our years of experience to work for you.
For further information on the benefits of repre¬
sentation contact:

THE ROBERT JACOB AGENCY
1642 Eveningside Drive, Suite 110
Thousand Oaks,CA 91362
(805)492-3597

RENT PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFT/W

Rent our PC Disk Libraries for 7 days and copy
them yourself. Hundreds of useful business,
games and utilities FREE FOR THE TAKING!
IBM-PCSIG-135 Disks $135.00

IBM-PC “Blue" 53 Disks $50.00

Rental is for 7 days after receipt, 3 days grace to
return. Most credit cards accepted.

NATIONAL PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE
CENTER

1533Avohill Drive
Vista, CA 92083

(619) 941-0925. lnfo-(619) 727-1015. 24 hr.
orders.

Software/Graphics

FORTRAN GRAPHICS PACK

60 Microsoft FORTRAN/Pascal (1.0 or 3.1)
SuperSoft FORTRAN callable subroutines.
Professional graphics power backed by a 90 page
user manual, filled with examples and designed
to be helpful to every level of user. Five packages
in one! General utility, 2-D interactive, 2-D plots,
3-D plots, and solid models (hidden line re¬
moval!) $95.

MICROCOMPATIBLES
11443 Oak Leaf Drive
Silver Spring, MD 20901
(301)593-0683

TECHTRONICS 4010 EMULATION

High resolution screen/printer graphics for the
IBM PC. Full interactive capabilities with file
transfer and cross-hair control. Utilizes PLOT 10,
ISSCOS DISSPLA, TEL-A-GRAF and SAS pro¬
tocols. OFF-line review of graphics output. This
emulation software is easy to use with high
quality graphics at an affordable price. $80.00.
Technological Systems Group
5044 Haley Court
Lilburn,GA 30247
(404)923-4980

GEOGRAF^“

GEOGRAF'“ helps you prepare high-quality,
customized graphs for business, engineering and
science. GEOGRAPH'" cuts programming time
by up to 80%. Callable from BASIC, FORTRAN
or PASCAL. Versions available for most graph¬
ics cards and plotters. Fully compatible with
Colcomp’s FORTRAN standard plotting package.
GEOCOMP CORPORATION
342 Sudbury Road
Concord, MA 01742
(617)369-8304

FORTRAN/PASCAL PEN PLOTS

PLOTMATIC: Complete support for H-P, IBM,
Apple and HI pen plotters. All primitives avail¬
able as subroutine/procedure calls plus total 2D
plotting support package. INTERFACES with
GRAFMATIC. Specify compiler (version num¬
ber) and plotter. $135 Plotmatic from
Microcompatibles.

Microcompatibles Dept. P
11443 Oak Leaf Drive
Silver Spring, MD 20901
(301)593-0683

Software/

Languages

ADA ON A MICRO

JANUS/ADA is an exceptional programming
language for software development. Being a
subset of the Ada programming language
JANUS/ADA implements those features of Ada
which are directly needed by professional pro¬
grammers. These features include separate
compilation, user defined data types and helpful
program debugging.

R.R. SOFTWARE
P.O. Box 1512
Madison W153701
(608)244-6436

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Build any application in a fraction of the time it
would take with BASIC or COBOL. TPL com¬
bines conventional programming language
constructs with a database manager, screen
handler, and report generator in a powerful, yet
flexible application development system. Full TPL
system $250. Manual/Demo $50.

Randak Systems
346 N. Kanan Road, #204
Agoura,CA 91301
(818)706-3737

Software/
Mailing Programs

PONY EXPRESS XL

Designed for commercial mailings or extra large
lists. Super fast machine code multi sort. Carrier
route sort. Prints labels: 1 -5 across, singale line
format, or user-defined format. Also CHESHIRE
FORMAT. Unlimited files. Multi file merge. Rec¬
ords can be selected by user-defined codes,
specific zips or zip ranges. Phone list option.
Unique correction & deletion routines for updat¬
ing. Instant access to all records. Auto repeat for
ease of record entry. Interfaces w/most word
processors. $238.

COMPUTECH
975 Forest Ave.

Lakewood, NJ 08701
(201)364-3005

Software/ Operating
Systems

MULTIPLE USERS UNDER PC DOS

MultiLink turns PC-DOS into an efficient multi¬
user multi-tasking operating system. Additional
users are supported by attaching inexpensive
CRT terminals or modems to serial ports on the
PC, and can run normal applications designed
for PC-DOS. Includes host communications
software for public dial-in.

THE SOFTWARE LINK INCORPORATED
6700 23B Roswell Rd.

Atlanta, GA 30328
(404)255-1254

Software/Sort

DPT-TECH SDRT/MERGE

Extremely fast Sort/Merge program for the IBM-
PC. Can sort or merge multiple files containing
fixed or variable length records. Run as a DOS
command or call as a subroutine, plus many
other features. Now also sorts dBASE II files!
Compare before you buy any other. Write or call
for more info. $99.

OPT-TECH DATA PROCESSING
P.O. Box 2167
Humble, TX 77347
(713)454-7428

INTERNAL SORT FOR BASIC

NSORT—A FAST & easy to use quicksort sub¬
routine written in C & assembler, CALLable from
BASIC. Sorts an unlimited number of records in
memory on up to 8 keys of mixed type, ascend¬
ing/descending. Like having a SORT built into
the language. Works w/compatibles. Compiled
and Interpreted, all DOS versions. $49.95+$2.50
s&h.MC/VISA/CHECK.PA + 6%tax.
NATIONAL SOFTWORKS
65 East Elizabeth Avenue
Bethlehem, PA 18018
(215)867-4800

Software/Statistics

AUTOBJ/AUTDBDX/BDX/SIM

These PC statistical forecasting and modelling
packages are as powerful as their mainframe
counterparts. “Smart software" optionally al¬
lows the user to automatically build the best
univariate and multivariate box-Jenkins models
including Intervention Models. Easily interfaced
with planning packages. Build B-J models in
minutes. From $195. Demo $5.

AUTOMATIC FORECASTING SYSTEMS, INC.
PO BOX 563
Hatboro, PA 19040
(215)675-0652

TECH BOOK

Software/Terminal

BLUELYNX

Replace your dumb terminals with smart PCs and
XTs. TECHLAND SYSTEMS is the nation’s lead¬
ing synchronous communications company with
over 6,000 BLUELYNX’ installed. The BLUE-
LYNX hardware/software product emulates the
5251/12 for the S/34, S/36 and S/38. Now
bundled with Autolynx for unattended operation
... only $745. BLUELYNX 3276 for the larger 43xx
and 30xx mainframes, both SDLC and BSC ver¬
sions, now comes bundled with Data Reader, a
utility that facilitates the formatting of host files
into Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, etc... only $795. Printer
and up-and-download support available with
both verisons.

TECHLAND

SYSTEMS INC.

TECHLAND SYSTEMS, INC.

25 Waterside Plaza
New York. NY 10010
(212)684-7788

Software/

Typesetting

HIGH-TECH TYPESETTING

Transmit your text via toll-free lines directly to
our fully automated typesetting system. $2. per
K characters with a $5. minimum. Same day
service. 200 typefaces in sizes up to 72 point.
Send $15. + $3. shipping for our 220 page
guidebook, or call toll free and use your MC, VISA
or AMEX.

INTERGRAPHICS INC.

106A South Columbus Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

(800) 368-3342 or (703) 683-9414 in DC area.

Software/Utiuties

IBM-PC COBOL PROGRAMMERS

Screen coding is fun, fast and accurate with
Qwik-Screen Builder. “Paint” screen layout and
create true COBOL source code for screen sec¬
tion in minutes. 100+ pages of documentation.
Satisfaction guaranteed or money back. Needs
DOS 1.1/2.0, two DS/DD drives, mono¬
chrome display and the COBRUN. EXE runtime
module. $50/Visa/MC.

THE COMPUTER WORKS
P.O.Box 1371

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83814
(208)667-6152

DOS PATH Command For Data

Now your programs can access data files under
DOS 2.0+ no matter where they are located.
DPATH, a system—resident program extending
the functionality of your DOS PATH command to
include data files, includes a screen—oriented
maintenance utility and a 60-page user manual.
Requires PC—DOS 2.0. $25.

PERSONAL BUSINESS SOLUTIONS. INC.

RO. Drawer 757
Frederick, Maryland 21701
(301)865-3376

SNOOP DISKETTE UTILITY

Produce graphic maps of diskettes and files.
Comprehensive diskette analysis. Add, delete or
modify labels. Pageable directory. Change file
attributes. Display, modify or search sectors or
files. Much more, all in a single, easy-to-use
program. Documentation included. Introductory
price $40. SASE for information.'

OTTER CREEK SOFTWARE
75 Hunting Lane
Goode, Virginia 24556

CONVERTS ANY CPMTODOS

CROSSDATA CONVERTS ANY DATA/TEXT FILE
format from CPMxx to MS/PC-DOS. CPMxx to
CPMxx & MS/PC-DOS to CPMxx. Cross data
runs on IBM PC or comparable computer using
MS/DOS 2.0. Cross data is a self-contained
program. It comes with over 24 mats and user
can add own format. To order send $99. check
or money order to:

AWARD SOFWARE, INC.

236 North Santa CruzAve.

Los Gatos. CA 95030
(408)395-2773

COPY PROTECTION

SLK/F places an assembled or compiled pro¬
gram on a diskette with 4 different copy-resis¬
tant features in such a way that it runs normally,
but cannot be copied by backup programs such
as COPYPC. The rest of the diskette is available
as normal, and DOS may be added. Price $150.

OLIVIE

BRANCH

SORTWARB

OLIVE BRANCH SOFTWARE
1715 Olive Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805)569-1682

dSEARCHER QUERY UTILITY

A professional searching tool for dBASE II files.
Uses simple query syntax with report, recall, and
edit facilities for single file searches of any com¬
plexity. Creates reusable command programs to
search unlimited number of files for “like" data.
Tutorial incl. $79.00. Visa/MC/COD. Call/write
for info.

MICRO BYTE

P.O. Box 245

Burke, VA 22015

(703)569-6473.(703)451-8717

COPY PROTECTION BY MSD

The ULTIMATE diskette copy protection system
designed by software developers and publish¬
ers. A variety of protection methods are avail¬
able to suit your protection requirements. All IBM
PC and XT environments are supported which
includes. DOS, BASIC (compiled and interpre¬
tive). Pascal, P-System and stand-a-lone sys¬
tems. Customized systems also available.
Requires; 64K, two disk drives.
MICRO-SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS. INC.

2Wk West Main Street
St. Charles, Illinois 60174
(312)377-5151

Hard Disk DIRECT ACCESS™

The ULTIMATE utility for any hard disk user. DI¬
RECT ACCESS is a powerful hard disk manage¬
ment tool. Organizes your software programs into
a “user defined" menu system. Features attrac¬
tive screen display, rapid access into an appli¬
cation using a single keystroke & easy to learn.
Also handles batch files & complicated DOS
commands. Order today. Only $44.50 + $2.50
shipping & handling. MC/VISA.

DELTA TECHNOLOGIES
P.O. Box 1104

Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54702
(715)832-0958

TOOLS FOR PROGRAMMERS

• FILE TOOL KIT. COMPARE lists file differ¬
ences. COMPRESS shrinks files, ENCRYPT se¬
cures valuable data. HEXDUMP lists files in hex
and ASCII.

• PASCAL TOOLKIT. PXREF prints program
cross-references; PNEAT prettyprints pro¬
grams. PCASE highlights variables. Just $29.95
each, both for $49.95. VISA/MC accepted.
SEVEN VALLEYS SOFTWARE

P.O. Box 99

Glen Rock, PA 17327

(717)235-5470

PADLOCK/PADLOCK II DISKS

PADLOCK furnishes the user with a method for
providing protection against unauthorized du¬
plication from DOS commands $99. PADLOCK
II disks come preformatted with finger-print and
serialization. PADLOCK II disks offer superior
protection. Ask about our fast data encryption
product. All work with hard disk, EXE/COM files
and all DOS versions. MC/VISA.

GLENCO ENGINEERING
3920 Ridge Ave.

Arlington Hts.,IL 60004
(312)392-2492

FULL CONTROL FROM BASIC!

Cut development time, add speed & power to
your programs with NLIB. A library of assembly
language sub-routines callable from BASIC: ex¬
ecute COM & EXE files, save & restore areas of
the screen, clear & scroll windows, much more!
Add DOS functions to your menus. Create fast
help screens. Unlimited uses. Complete manual
& sample programs. All DOS versions. $49.95
+ Source avail. Call or write
NATIONAL SOFTWORKS
65 East Elizabeth Ave.

Bethlehem. PA 18018
(215)867-4800

FULL CONTROL FROM BASIC

Cut development time, add speed & power to
your programs w/NLIB. A library of assembly
language subroutines callable from BASIC: ex¬
ecute COM & EXE files, save & restore areas of
the screen, clear & scroll windows, much more!
Add DOS functions to your menus. Create fast
help screens. Unlimited uses. All DOS Versions
$49.95 + $2.50 s&h. MC/VISA/CHECK. PA +
6 % tax.

NATIONAL SOFTWORKS
65 East Elizabeth Ave.

Bethlehem, PA 18018
(215)867-4800

BASICWINDOW

Screen Generator and Processor for BASIC pro¬
grammers. This package combines a Screen
Painter for creating and modifying screens and
Macro Language and Compiler for quicker cod¬
ing and testing. Features COLOR, field vari¬
ables, complete input editing, line drawing. For
BASIC, BASICA, and BASIC Compiler users. In¬
cludes manual and reference card. $99.95 VISA/
MC accepted.

G. FREEMAN & COMPANY. INC.

15Albin Road
Stamford. CT 06902
(203)327-9868

FIX DOS WITHA.K.A!

Take full advantage of multiple directories—let
unmodified programs access files outside of the
current directory without pathnames. Alias file
name to full paths, or direct searches to other
directories according to name or extension, with
multiple options. Operation is invisible—aliases
are contained in the DOS 2.0 “environment.” $60.
MC/VISA.

SOFTSHELLTECHNOLOGYS
54 Walnut Hill Rd.

Newton, MA 02159
(617)332-8186

Software/Word

Processing

PELADA TEXT ENGINEER

Word processing for scientific and multilingual
text. All IBM characters. Super/subscripts, ital¬
ics, underlining, bolding. With graphics hard¬
ware. you can use any symbols and any alphabet,
up to 384 characters. All symbols visible on
screen and printable. Easy English commands.
$250.

PELADA INFORMATICS INC.

562 Johnson Street
Kingston, Canada K7L-2A1
(613)549-1747

VOLKSWRITER DELUXE

Features TextMerge'“ for customized mailing lists;
multi-lingual, engineering & scientific symbols:
horizontal scrolling to 250 characters: docu¬
ment size 1 megabyte; on-screen page endings,
underline, boldface, double-strike, strike¬
through. multiple fonts & colors—fevyest key¬
strokes per function. Only $295.

LIFETREE SOFTWARE INC.

411 Pacific Street
Monterey, CA 93940-2790

TECH MART

FORTRAN

PASCAL

PROGRAMMER?

READ

THIS

GRAPHICS

• Text/graphics generics

• 2D interactive

• 2D plots (full support) including
auto-scaling, auto-axis genera¬
tion, auto-labeling, tabular/log/
parametric curves, splines, bars,
pies, you name it, we have it.

• 3D Plots incl. 2 hidden line remov¬
al options—not just old-fashioned
wire frame.

PEN PLOTS

• Standard plotter primitives plus

• FULL 2D support plus

• Interface to screen graphics,

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HOWTO

GETAN

HlirPG

FORJUOT

< 1995 .

The Chameleon by Seequa does everything an IBM
PC does. For about $2000 less than an IBM.

The Chameleon lets you run popular IBM software
like Lotus® 1-2-3™ and Wordstar.® It has a full 83 key
keyboard just like an IBM. Disk drives like an IBM. And
a bright 80 x 25 character screen just like an IBM.

But it’s not just the Chameleon’s similarities to the
IBM that should interest you. Its advantages should, too.
The Chameleon also has an 8 bit microprocessor that

lets you run any of the
thousands of CP/M-80® programs available. It comes
complete with two of the best programs around,
Perfect Writer™ and Perfect Calc.™ It’s portable. Anc
you can plug it in and start computing the moment
you unwrap it.

So if you’ve been interested in an IBM personal
computer, now you know where you can get one for
$1995. Wherever they sell Chameleons.

The Chameleon by

SEEQUA

COMPUTER

CORPORATION

8305 Telegraph Road
Odenton.MD 21113

CIRCLE NO. 265 ON READER SERVICE CARD

For the location of the Seequa dealer nearest you,
call (800) 638-6066 or (301) 672-3600.

PC TECH JOURNAL PRODUCT INDEX

RS# PRODUCT ADVERTISER PAGE #

OPERATING SYSTEMS

265 Chameleon Seequa .204

160 Xenix Santa Cruz Operation .28

IBM COMPUTERS AND COMPATIBLE UNITS

“ Compaq Portable Compaq Computer Co.90-91

277 Single Board PC I-Bus Systems .78

ACCESSORY CARDS/
MULTIFUNCTION BOARDS

199 Super Rio/Rio Plus STB Systems .33

190 Bubble Memory Board Pure Data Ltd .161

225 Taurus Boards Taurus Computer Products .4

154 Captain & First Mate Tecmar .18-19

NETWORKING PRODUCTS

201 B-Trieve Softcraft, Inc.94

192 PC-Net-Local Area Network Orchid Technology .141

119 C-Tree Faircom .100

198 Multilink Software Link .178

230 Omninet Corvus .95

218 Network Station Watsoft .118

OTHER ACCESSORY CARDS

273 ABM Superboard ABM Computer Systems .183

145 8087 Math Pak Hauppauge Computer .74

154 Labpac Tecmar .18-19

MASS STORAGE HARDWARE

106 Apparat Hard Disk Apparat .62-63

122 Pegasus Hard Disk Great Lakes .121

234 Tallgrass Hard Disk Tallgrass Technology .2

215 SCSI Interface Innovative Data .181

185 9 Track Tape controller Overland Data .168

134 Data Series Hard Disk Micro Design .169

149/ 10 MB Drive

205 Interface .145

124 9 Track Mag IBEX Computer Corp .116

101 Mega Flight 100 Kammerman Labs .29

111 Teammate Data Technology Corp .26

114 Disk Drive Dragon .15

143 Mass Storage Hardware Davong .C-3

142 Hard Disk Subsystem Desert Technology .184

125 Storage Products Mountain Computer .162

“ The Image Sysgen .107

169 The Vision Series Pacific Datanet .149

COMMUNICATIONS HARDWARE

104 Magnum/Supersmart American High Tech Ind.133

204 M1212 PC Board Modem Multitech Systems .8

191 Communications Family Quadram .C-2

213 File Connection Flagstaff Engineering .67

103 Smart-Cat Modem Novation, Inc.148

158 Smartcom II Hayes Microcomputer Products 42-43

187 XCom Modem Delta Communications . 175

PRINTERS Sl PLOTTERS

122 Scientific Plotter Interactive Microware .189

147 HP Plotter Hewlitt Packard .145

INPUT HARDWARE

" Microsoft Mouse Microsoft .22-23

GRAPHICS SOFTWARE

114 ESP Bellesoft .39

138 GDSS Data Business Vision .167

SOFTWARE FOR PROFESSIONALS

" SideKick Borland International .117

235 Printer Basher Connecticut Software .68

120 Concept 100 Concept Technology .172

WORD PROCESSING SOFTWARE

236 Word Perfect Satellite Software Int’l .13

141 Text Engineer Pelada Informatica .127

RS# PRODUCT ADVERTISER PAGE #

DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

300 DBase II Ashton Tate .108-109

196 Knowledge Man MDBS .12

148 XIM Zanthe .1

146 Dataflex Data Access .150

221 Database Management Software Quic-N-Easy . 162-163

LANGUAGES

° Turbo Pascal Borland International .117

129 C-86 Compiler Computer Innovations .182

222 HS/Forth Harvard softworks .154

159 PC Forth Laboratory Microsystems .132

243 LISP Integral Quality .208

208 APL Plus/PC System STSC .153

186 Coherent Mark Williams .27

115 Pascal and C Tools Blaise Computing .84

121 Windows for C Creative Solutions .102

165 mbp cobol mbp Software and Systems

Technology .103

177 Better Basic Summit Software .35-37

151 Modular II Logitech .101

PROGRAMMER'S TOOLS

206 PDT PC Answer Software .72

105 Greenleaf Functions C Library Greenleaf Software .147

268 Editor-n-Chief Polytron .97

207 SPF/PC Rogue River Software .126

113 Unix style Tools Carousel Microtools .190

157 B-Tree Accudata Software .178

126 VSI Amber Systems .86

166 Amerisoft Edit Tool Amerisoft .138

112 Programming Tool Bit Wit Software .191

116 Basic C C-Source .124

179 Opt Tech Sort Opt Tech .118

132 Firstime Spruce Technology .75

109 Ecosoft-C Ecosoft .109

137 Peeks’n Pokes Data Base Decisions .41

131 Symbolic Debugger D&V Systems .132

173 Explain Documentation Communication Sciences .114

216 The Profiler DWB Associates .81

181 DB Compiler Word Tech .87

167 Mylstar Symbolic Debugger Mylstar .99

201 B-Trieve Softcraft .94

184 Dezign Zeducomp .135

107 PC Probe Atron .73

SOFTWARE UTILITIES

153 Multijob B&L Computer Consultants .189

150 KeySwap Rickerdata .69

° JET Tall Tree Systems .136

172 Screen Sculptor Software Bottling Co.123

180 Prolock Vault Corporation .16-17

164 D Flow Wallsoft Systems Inc.82

156 Autokey Strategic Automation .120

196 Scroll Optimum Data Processing .168

194 Copy Write Quaid .81

155 File Conversion Micro Tech .168

ANALOG I/O

139 DT2801/I.O. System Data Translation .70

ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES

130 Data Saver Cuesta Systems .184

178 TDK Diskettes TDK Electronics .88-89

125 Surge Protector Curtis .10-11

193 Diskettes Beck .176

MAIL ORDER

123 MicroXpress .174

226 Programmer’s Connection .191

239 Programmer’s Shop .160

175 Software Horizons .134

183 PC Link .83

197 Coosol .104

203 Micro Mart .7

September i984

205

COMPU

805 - 498-6635

IBM PC $1899

256K, two disk drives 360K each.

Drive Controller and Keyboard

IBM PORTABLE

256K, two disk drives $2199

IBMPCw/IOMB

256K, one floppy Drive, Keyboard ^ n r a

10 MB Hard Disk with Controller yZ599

BOOTS FROM HARD DISK Backup also available

IBMPC w/30MB

256K, one floppy Drive, Keyboard
30 MB Hard Disk with Controller
and Booster Power Supply
BOOTS FROM HARD DISK Backup also available

$3999

★ PRICE WAR ★ CALLUS LAST WITH YOUR BEST QUOTES

PRINTERS

FX-80...

EPSON LO-1500.

.$489

$599

.CALL

OKIDATA

INCLUDES PLUG&PUY

92P.

93P.

84P.

$399

$649

.$799

^-- 2050 .
NEC 3550

..$799

.$1,499

DYNAX

DX-15

$399

BROTHER S'li

$649

$999

IDS PRISM 132C

COLOR PRINTER

$ 1,499

SHEET FEEDERS
AND TRACTORS

PLOTTERS

AMDEK

AMPLOTII 6Pens

CALL

$799

7470A-2Pens.

7475A-6Pens

...$949

..$1,699

DXY-10I -1 Pen.$599

ROLAND DXY-SOO - 8 Pens.$799

Houston OMP 40-2 Pens... $799

instrument dmp 29 - 8 Pens... $1799

MONITORS

MAX -12 Amber.$179

HX-12 .$449

P05SR-12.$599

ROLAND
CC141 14" RGB.

$599

300 Green.$119

. 300 Amber.$139

AMPeK 310 Amber. ..$159

MODEMS

MICROCOMERA2

Internal.$329 Standalone.$439

HAYES 12008.$399

SMARTMODEM 1200 .$479

Internal ..
QUBIE Standalone .

.$299

.$329

COMPU

HARD DRIVES

UP TO 140 MB

BACKUP ALSO AVAILABLE CALL

EVEREX 10MB

w/Controlier and 2 Year Warranty

$899

MAYNARD 10MK/SOMB

10M8/WS-1.$899 IOMB/WS-2.$1,049

30MB.CALL

NETWORKING

ORCHID TECHNOLOGY

PC Net PLUS Starter Kit.$999

CORVUS OMNINET

TALL GRASS TECHNOLOGY

20 MB w/20 MB Backup .$3,299

35 MB w/45 MB Bockup .$4,495

70 MB w/60 MB Backup.CALL

FLOPPY DRIVES

55B-DSD0.$149

TEAC HEIGHT 55F-QUAD.$199

SANTA CLARA SYSTEMS

PC Terminal.CALL

MULTI-DISPLAY CARDS

jD MonoGraph Plus w/clock & PP.$369

AST Serial Port Option.$30

QUAD Color I

EVEREX Graphics Edge

$199 ColorII ..$199

5399

fullHt-DSDD.$199

CDC HalfHt.-DSDD .$179

TANDON 100-2

Full Ht. DSDD

$179

i,$UPER SPECIALS i,

64KRAM

Set of 9 chips

$45

TECMAR Graphics Master $449

ueRB#<iRi Mono Graphics.$329

HENVULES Color Graphics.$199

NEW

$349

PtANTRONICS

Color Plus $366

PARADISE Multi-display Cord $299

mm^mrn Color/Graphics Cord.$199

IBIVI PC MonoChrorne/Printer Cord.$199

PGS HX-12

$449

Tseng Labs Ultra PAK $499

MULTI FUNCTION CARDS

'^^'^QUADBOARD (to384K) $199

AST$IXPAK»I>MK|I.3B4»} $249

EVEREX $229

TEAC Disk Drive

FD55B, 360K slimline, PC Compatible

$149

KEYTRONIC ^lon

Deluxe Keyboard KB5151>177

ERA 2 MODEM

PC Internal 1200 Baud w/software, 4 Yr. Warranty

$329

COMPAQ

2S6K. 2 Disk Drlvas

$ 1,999

MISC. ADD DNS

PRACTICAL

PERIPHERALS MICROBUFFER.

CALL

CABLE Parallel or Serial

$20

IBM PC DOS].] ..$20 DOS 2.1 ..$50

IBM PC Floppy Drive Controller $139

AMERICAN

EXPRESS

VISA

COD NO SURCHARGE: VISA & MC 3%, AMEX 5%

COMPUTER POWER
ACCESSORIES DIRECTOR

$109

..$299

..$399

STANDBY 200 wahs..

POWER SUPPLY 300 wahs..

Surge Protection, up to 30 minutes Standby Power

805 - 498-6635

2509 THOUSAND OAKS BLVD., THOUSAND OAKS, CA 91362 TELEX 888522

Ad #889

CIRCLE NO. 117 ON READER SERVICE CARD

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

Reader Service

Number Advertiser Page

273 ABM .183

157 Accudata Software .178

126 Amber Systems .86

104 American High Tech .133

166 Amerisoft .138

206 Answer Software .72

106 Apparat .62-63

300 AshtonTate .108-109

107 Atron .73

110 Avocet .85

153 BSlL Computer .189

193 Beck Manufacturing .176

114 Bellesoft .39

112 Bit Wit Software .191

115 Blaise Computing .84

* Borland International .117

* Borland International .119

108 Bourbaki, Inc.191

116 C-Source .124

113 Carousel Microtools .190

173 Communication Sciences . 114

* Compaq Computer Co. .90-91

117 Compumail .206

197 Computer Baron .104

129 Computer Innovations .182

120 Concept Technologies .172

235 Connecticut Software .68

197 Coosol, Inc.104

230 Corvus .95

121 Creative Solution .102

130 Cuesta Systems .184

125 Curtis Manufacturing ...10-11

133 CXI .C-4

131 D Sl V Systems .132

216 DWB Associates .81

146 Data Access Corp .150

137 Data Base Decisions .41

138 Data Business Vision .167

202 Data Sources .137

111 Data Technology Corp .26

278 Davong Systems .C-3

187 Delta Communications ....175

142 Desert Technologies .184

144 Dragon Industries .15

109 Ecosoft .109

119 Faircom .100

September i984

Reader Service

Number Advertiser Page

213 Flagstaff Engineering .67

122 Great Lakes .121

105 Greenleaf Software .147

222 Harvard Softworks .154

145 Hauppage Computer .74

158 Hayes Microcomputer ..42-43

* Hercules .9

147 Hewlitt Packard .145

124 IBEX Computer Corp .116

277 I-Bus Systems .78

152 IBM .170-71

215 Innovative Data .181

243 Integral Quality .208

122 Interactive Microware .189

149 Interface .145

102 Iomega .115

101 Kammerman Labs .29

159 Laboratory Microsystems . 132

128 Lattice, Inc.116

151 Logitech Inc.101

186 Mark Williams Co., The ... 27
165 mbp Software and Systems

Technology .103

269 Metrabyte .177

118 Micro Data Base Systems .. 12

134 Micro Design Int'l .169

163 Micro Marketing Associates

122

203 Micro Mart .7

155 Micro Tech Exports .168

161 The Microperipheral .168

* Microsoft .22-23

174 Microway .106

* Microware . See Microway

123 Microxpress .174

165 Morgan Computing Co .... 139

125 Mountain Computer, Inc. 162

204 Multi Tech Systems .8

167 Mylstar Electronics .99

103 Novation .148

179 Opt-Tech .118

196 Opt-Tech .168

168 Orange Micro .64

192 Orchid Technology .141

185 Overland Data .168

170 PC Brand .44-45

Reader Service

Number Advertiser Page

182 PC Connection .76-77

183 PC Link .83

169 Pacific Datanet .149

141 Pelada Informatica .127

143 Phoenix Software .6

171 Polygon .96

268 Polytron .97

188 Princeton Graphics .159

226 Programmer's Connection 191

239 Programmer's Shop .160

190 Pure Data LTD.161

191 Quadram Corp.C-2

194 Quaid Software .81

221 Quic-N-Easi Products 162-163

150 Rickerdata .69

207 Rogue River Software .126

199 STB Systems .33

208 STSC .153

160 Santa Cruz Operation .28

236 Satellite Software .13

265 Seequa .204

201 Softcraft .94

172 Software Bottling Co.123

175 Software Horizons .134

198 Software Link .178

132 Spruce Technology .75

299 Standard Datacom .165

176 Star Micronics .155

156 Strategic Automation .120

177 Summit Software .35-37

* Sysgen, Inc.107

200 System Engineering .158

178 TDK Electronics .88-89

234 Tall Grass Technology .2

* Tall Tree Systems .136

225 Taurus Computer .4

154 Tecmar .18,19

195 Tecmar .179

180 Vault Corporation .16-17

140 Visual Age .110

164 Wallsoft Systems, Inc .82

218 Watsoft . 118

228 Watsoft .126

181 Word Tech .87

148 Zanthe .1

184 Zeducomp .135

207

CALENDAR

USP

FOR THE

THE PREMIER LANGUAGE
OF ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE FOR
YOUR IBM PC.

■ DATATYPES

Lists and Symbols
Unlimited Precision Integers
Floating Point Numbers
Character Strings
Multidimensional Arrays
Files

Machine Language Code

■ MEMORY MANAGEMENT

Full Memory Space Supported
Dynamic Allocation
Compacting Garbage Collector

■ FUNCTION TYPES

EXPR/FEXPR/MACRO
Machine Language Primitives
Over 190 Primitive Functions

■ lO SUPPORT

Multiple Display Windows
Cursor Control
All Function Keys Supported
Read and Splice Macros
Disk Files

■ POWERFUL ERROR RECOVERY

■ 8087 SUPPORT

■ COLOR GRAPHICS

■ LISP LIBRARY

Structured Programming Macros
Editor and Formatter
Package Support
Debugging Functions
OBJ File Loader

■ RUNS UNDER PC-DOS 1.1 or 2.0

_ IQLISP _

5Va” Diskette

and Manual_$175.00

Manual Only_$ 30.00

Jq Integral Quality
P.O.Box 31970

Seattle, Washington 98103-0070
(206) 527-2918

Washington State residents add sales tax.
VISA and MASTERCARD accepted.
Shipping included for prepaid orders.

SEPTEMBER _

September 3-5

IBM System User Show
London

Sponsor: IBM System User Magazine
Contact: EMAP International
Exhibitions Ltd., 8 Herbal Hill,

London, ECIR 5JB, England

September 6-9

CompuLearn: International
Exposition and Conference on
Computers in Education
Atlanta, GA

Sponsors: Expoconsul International, Inc.
and A Better Way in cooperation
with The United Negro
College Fund

Contact: Expoconsul International Inc.,
55 Princeton-Hightstown Road,

Princeton Junction, NJ 08550

September 11-14

UNIX Systems EXPO/84

Los Angeles, CA

Sponsor: Computer Faire, Inc.

Contact: David Sudkin, 617-965-8350;
Alan Kucheck, 415-364-4294

September 12-14
Eurographics '84
Copenhagen

Sponsor: SIGGRAPH

Contact: DIS Congress Service, Linde

Alle 48, DK-2720 Vanlose,

Copenhagen, Denmark

September 16-20

COMECON Fall
Arlington, VA

Sponsor: IEEE

Contact: IEEE, P.O. Box 639,

Silver Spring, MD 20901

September 20-23
New York/Userfest
New York, NY

Sponsor: Northeast Expositions
Contact: Northeast Expositions,
617-739-2000

September 24-25

World Conference on

Ergonomics in Computer

Systems

Los Angeles, CA

Contact: Crispin Littlehales or

Rosemarie Burnett,

Thomas L. Richmond, Inc.,

1350 Avenue of the Americas,

New York, NY 10019
212-581-4200

September 24-26
PCExpo
Anaheim, CA

Contact: PCExpo Shows,

333 Sylvan Avenue,

Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632,
201-569-8542

September 27-30

5th Annual Mid-Atlantic
Computer Show and Office
Equipment Exposition
Washington, D.C.

Sponsor: CompuShows, Inc.
Contact: CompuShows, Inc.,

P.O. Box 3315,

Annapolis, MD 21403

OCTOBER _

October 2-4

East Coast Computer Faire
Boston, MA

Sponsor: Computer Faire, Inc.

Contact: Dave Roth, 617-965-8350 (East
Coast office); Nels Anderson,
415-364-4294 (West Coast office)

October 8-10

ACM 1984 Conference
San Francisco, CA

Contact: Karen A. Duncan, Health
Information Systems, 15 Parsons Way,
Los Altos, CA 94022, 415-948-3941

October 9-11

International Conference on
Advances in Microprocessor
Peripherals
Lausanne, Switzerland

Contact: Secretariat des Jouintes
d'electronique et de microtechnique,
Departement d'Electricite^EPFL,
Chenin de Bellerive 16, CH-1(X)7
Lausanne, Switzerland, 41-21-471111

October 15-17

4th Symposium on Reliability
in Distributed Software and
Database Systems
Silver Spring, MD

Sponsor: IEEE Computer Society, in
cooperation with ACM
Contact: IEEE Computer Society,

P.O. Box 639, Silver Spring, MD 20901,
301-589-8142

October 15-18
SOFTCON/FALL
Los Angeles, CA

Sponsor: Northeast Expositions
Contact: Northeast Expositions,
617-739-2000

CIRCLE NO. 243 ON READER SERVICE CARD

PC Tech Journal

The Perfect Match

Davonghasa
beautiful way to solve
__ both your hard

Davong'tS^n^e^

combines good
looks with hard

disk and tape.

We offer a
full range of
disk sizes, all includ¬
ing a hard disk drive plus
tape backup unit. And the
capability of using the tape as
a start/stop systems device.

IHKl

In fact, this Davong
DataSystem has a lot of other
beautiful benefits, too. Like com¬
pressed or full-volume backup
with file-by-file or full-volume
restore. And automatic flaw
mapping to ensure complete
media interchangeability.

®Multi-OS is a registered trademark of Davong Systems, Inc. ®IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corp.

Our full XT compatibility
actually offers performance
a cut above other XTs. And
if you want even higher
performance and password
protection, you can use our
Multi-OS® software.

To top it off, there's the
sleek, contemporary styling
of our DataSystem. And a
low price that's equally
attractive.

Davong
DataSystem
for IBM
PC's.

Davong Systems, Inc.

217 Humboldt Court
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
(408) 734-4900 Telex: 176386

CIRCLE NO. 278 ON READER SERVICE CARD

Introducing

3270 PC capability for all the PCs you
can’t afford to replace.

When IBM designed the 3270 PC, they
thought of everything. Except what to do with
all the PCs your company already owns.

We were a little more thoughtful.

Tkke our CXI 3270 PC Connection. It’s an
add-in board and software that turns the IBM*
PCs and compatibles you have into the 3270
PCs you need. Both local and remote.

Using either a coaxial or
modem connection.

Now your users can
access and “window” up to
five different host applications
at the same time. There’s also a window for
running a PC DOS program. Which can be easily
programmed to talk with any host session—
or all five at once. And if that weren’t enough,
we even included two electronic notepads.

But here’s the best part.

Your existing PC-attached printers can
work as host-addressable IBM 3287 equivalents.

You can run all the PC software you’ve already
invested in. And even international keyboard
mapping and file transfer are standard.

Of course, not everyone
on your network needs foil
3270 PC capability.That’s why
we offer the CXI 3278/79 Plus
connection. It lets your PC
users view one host session, one PC program
and two notepads—concurrently.

Our entire line of CONNECTWARE™
micro-to-mainframe solutions is available on
a 30-day free trial basis.

So for more information, call toll-free
800/221-6402. In California, call 415/424-0700.

Or write CXI, Inc., 3606 West Bayshore
Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303.

Telex 821945.

And get the 3270 PC I Jy I
capability you need on the
PCs you already have. il^HIIH

CONNECTWARE is a trademark of CXI, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. © 1984, CXI, Inc.
CIRCLE NO. 133 ON READER SERVICE CARD

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